Asco was an artist collective which was active in Los Angeles the early 1970s -80s who were challenging the structure of the formal art world. They are a lesser known group, as they really only gained attention in LA and surrounding areas.
They were once turned away for one of LAs most prominate art muesums on the grounds that Chicanos don't make real art and were told something along the lines that Chicancos were vandals and hoodlums. In response, they spray painted their names on the facade of the build. Ascos work almost always touched on race and culture, among other social issues. Many of there works were more along the lines of happenings. Performance, and costumes were crucial to there work.
If I had to compare my work to another body of work it would be Asco's. We deal with many of the same issues content-wise, and translate that into a performative type of art.
Though I appreciate there work and the fact that they were pioneers of this genre, there was a definte crudeness to there work that I also stuggle with in mine. I suspect that it is because a lot of my work is only relateable to others of my area because that seemed to be their issue. Unless you were in LA in the early 70s, a lot of the things they did probably seemed unimportant and odd simpliy for the sake of oddity.
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