Patssi Valdez's paper fashion

Patssi Valdez's paper fashion project has been shown in Nottingham Contemporary in Oct 2013 as part of the ASCO performances. She is an American artist, mostly known for her fine art work and her performance.
Valdez is most famous for her contribution to the greative group Asco which started emergence in the 60s. Asco was a collaboration project of 4 artists - Patssi Valdez, Harry Gamboa, Gronk, and Willie Herron. The name of the group comes from spanish and means "disgust" and "impulse to vomit". All the artist were part of the Chicano society in America and relate their ideas to broad world happenings in the 60s and 70s, including political and economical issues. They used variety of art form such as installations, paitings, performances, etc. Their work is considered as avant-garde and extremely provocative.

The project of paper fashion which was released by Valdez last year in Nottingham Contemporary, was originally an idea of the other member of the group - Garry Gamboa who worked on a project of creating a fashion review made entirelt of paper. Unfortunately, I could find any photos and information if it had actually been released. However, for the recent project, Patssi Valdes in ta collaboration of local artist Nadim Chaundry have created 4 paper gowns.

The dresses are extremely interesting in terms of silhouettes, colors and details. They are avant garde and extraordinary. They carry the spirit of American's chicana art of the 70's but at the same time very local and related to the British culture. These art works can be perfectly related to my project's idea how the limitation, as it is to use just one material - paper, could serve as a great stimulation of creativity.

Another unique aspect of the work of Valdez is her determination to keep revealing the secrets of that art movement which is a great inspiration to contemporary artist which constanly use references from previous historical periods.

sources:
Anon., 2013. Asco (art collective). Wikipedia [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asco_(art_collective) [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Anon., 2014. Chicano. Wikipedia [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano
Jim Hinch, 2012. Walking Mural: Asco and the end of Chicano art [online]. Available at:http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/walking-mural-asco-and-the-ends-of-chicano-art [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Nottingham post, 2013. Asco's Patssi Valdez on her Nottingham Contemporary exhibition [online]. Available at: http://www.nottinghampost.com/Asco-s-Patssi-Valdez-Nottingham-Contemporary/story-19930867-detail/story.html [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Emma Zakaryan, 2013. Patssi Valdez: Asco and beyond [online]. Available at: http://chicanaart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/patssi-valdez-asco-and-beyond.html [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Eleonore Welles, n.d. Patssi Valdez [online] Available at: http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2000/Articles1200/PValdezA.html
https://www.frieze.com/issue/review/asco-elite-of-the-obscure/ [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Patssi Valdez, 2013. Nottingham Contemporary/paper fashions [digital image] Available at: http://www.patssivaldez.com/nottingham-contemporary-paper-fashions.html [Accessed 23/04/2014]