Respond to Asco Show in Los Angeles Museum of Art LACMA

¶ … ASCO show in Ios Angeles museum of art (LACMA)

Mind Expansion: The Art of ASCO

In many ways, the work of the defunct performance art group Asco, which is currently enjoying an art show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of the Pacific Standard Time series, can be thought of as expanding the very definition of the term art. One look at the various still images from the exhibit, which showcased the group's penchant for "no-movies" -- which involved the dissemination of visuals and postcards of scenes from movies that did not actually exist -- certainly indicates that the conventional definition of the term art does not necessarily apply to this sort of work. In many of the existing images of the no-movie stills, the various members of Asco (which include Willie Herron, Harry Gamboa Jr., Patssi Valdez and a man known as Gronk) are dressed up with an assortment of props that may have resembled something from a scene of a demented version of Alice in Wonderland. Attention grabbing and eye-opening? Maybe. But art? Evidently so, if the work is featured in a museum of art.

As such, it would be easy to dismiss the group's work as merely sensationalist, a novelty for its time and perhaps even for contemporary standards. After all, it wasn't necessarily the photography that captured these images that is being considered as the work of art displayed, but the actual settings and the usage of the props and costumes and the innovation of the no-movie concept that made such rendering worthy of the distinction of art. But in retrospect, when looking at these dated stills, all the casual observer sees is pictures of people in funny clothes or in odd positions or, perhaps, doing weird things. Once the novelty of the public relations campaign (that took place in the 70's) wears off, it seems a little difficult to consider some of this stuff as actually containing artistic value.

Still, there is a part of artwork that has social value, and in that respect, many of the political motives that fueled the work of the group were valid, if not during modern times (although such a case may be argued) then at least during the 70's. The lack of Latino and Latina actors in films was certainly a good reason to protest or perhaps parody the film industry that ignored such people. To that extent the work of Asco can be defined as artistic in the sense that it was attempting to make a statement and even to change society, something which the best of artwork oftentimes seeks to do.

However, works of art such as "Decoy Gang War Victim," in which the group would travel to neighborhoods plagued by gang violence and reenact crime scenes that were fictionalized and present the images to the media in hopes of stopping gang violence and making fun of the media, don't necessarily seem to have much artistic value. Sure, such work was created for a good cause and hopefully served its purpose, but most people probably would not want to spend money to see such things, which they could see for free in their own neighborhoods, if they wanted to.