Chicano Dream

In 2014, the Museum of Aquitaine welcomes the exposition "Chicano Dream", which is composed by paintings, sculptures, photographs,... belonging in most of the cases, to the Cheech Martin's collection. This exposition celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of partnership between Bordeaux and Los Angeles (LA).

The Museum exposes the works of Mexican-American artists who belong to the cultural, political and social movement, since the 1960's: the Chicano movement. They are witnesses of the living conditions of the Mexican-American people during this time, in the United States (USA), and they also talk about their dream of integration without deny their original culture. Here, art represents a form of commitment against political unfairness just as well a testimony of a despised culture.

Among the different artists, I chose Patssi Valdez because she is a woman who doesn't hesitate to affirm her identity, and because her universe is very strange.

Patssi Valdez: biography.

Patssi Valdez was born in LA, in 1951.

She has participated in many forms of art: she's made paintings, performances, photographs,... Activist and feminist, she defends her values through the art. But her work is also the expression of her interiority, and the spectator can observe her pain and her childhood.

For instance, she's painted visions of home, which embodies a dangerous and mysterious place. The spectator is struck by these empty and so strange rooms, where symbols of happiness, parties, family,... look more stressful than joyful.

The setting (frightening home, deep ocean,...) is closely bound to her feelings.

Patssi Valdez began her career during the 1970's in the Garfield High School, localised in East LA, where she met some artists. They associated to form the group "Asco".

Then, she's produced individual and group exhibitions, from the 1980's to today, often in LA, New-York, Paris or in the Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica.

She gets some rewards and honors, like the Brody Art Fellowship in Visual Arts (LA) in 1988, her first award, the San Diego Latino Film Festival Tribute in 2000, or the Estrellas de Nuestra Cultura Mexican Cultural Institute Award in 2005, for instance.

Today, she lives and works in LA.

Asco.

In 1972, Patssi Valdez founded with Harry Gamboa Jt, Gronk and Willie F. Herrón III, the group "Asco", which name is the word "nausea" in Spanish. It increased from its creation to the 1980's, with the progressive involvement of other artists, like Diane Gamboa, Marisela Norte or Teddy Sandoval.

Photograph of Willie, Patssi, Gronk and Harry.

At the origin, the group emerged from the Chicano civil rights movement (in the late 1960's and the early 1970's). They protest against the social and cultural discriminations, and all the false informations, prejudices or stereotypes conveyed by the hollywoodian TV. For instance, they fight labour exploitation, Vietnam draft, police brutality,...

"We've used the Cold War's tool, grabbing a word that people use to despise us, and making it fashionable", explained Harry Gamboa Jr, who also said about the group that "Together, we can create a chain reaction." These quotes show the strength and all the will of every member.

They've made performances, paintings, cinema, street art in LA in particular, photographs,... to highlight the Chicano culture and their claims against society and anti-immigration politics. Then, they want to provoke the spectators, to make them conscientious about this world of injustice, scorn and pain, world where minorities are misunderstanded or even worse, where they are unlistened until to being forgotten.

Extract of The Last Supper, an Asco's performance.

The works exhibited in the "Chicano Dream".

Little Girl with yellow dress, 1995 Acrylic

The Patssi Valdez's work is often representative of a strange and gloomy atmosphere, wavering between dream and nightmare, like in this painting.

We have a sensation of unsteadiness, with the wall which is leaning, just behind the girl. Then, it is as if the wall would collapse on her little body. And its red-orange colour can reminds us, then, the colour of the blood.

The plays with the lights and shades, the cold and hot colours, or the broken lines, are increasing the feeling of unsteadiness. Besides, the setting in the background is blurred, as if there were no mark, or if this vision wasn't real. The aura around the girl may backs this idea. Then it's not a child, it's a kind of ghost.

Moreover, the expression of this kid is a bit strange and there is a deep gap between her expression and the idea we usually have about a little girl. She looks sullen and unhappy, which creates a contrast with her yellow dress, colour that evokes sun and joy. All the more as, there is a blue ball in front of her, that she doesn't play with at all. So, is really it her ball? Is the girl sullen because she can't take the ball? Maybe, the presence of this ball highlights the loneliness of the young child. In fact, she is the only one human being on this painting.

This idea of loneliness reminds the feelings of the Chicanos: their culture and all the undocumented weren't recognized by the USA society. Mexican-Americans must feel lonely, abandoned by the society, and in an unsteadiness situation, shared between their origin and their will to be integrated to their new country.

Then, we can say that the girl and this strange landscape can represent the feelings of this people. Like a ghost, their culture is despised, forgotten and invisible for the society. Like a little girl in front of a fallen wall, they feel worried. Like a child, alone and sullen, behind a ball, they feel misunderstanded, lonely and in gap with their social environment. And like the broken lines and the contrasts, they are broken between two different cultures.

Happy Birthday, 2000 Acrylic

This painting represents a birthday party in an empty room, with invisible guests.

Patssi Valdez painted a series of birthday parties, to express her pain of never being given one. In fact, she's born on New Year Eve, so her family would rather celebrate this day than her birthday.

Once again, we have a strange atmosphere, related by the preparative for a party, and the emptiness of the home. There is a huge gap between the hope of the little girl -we can suppose it talks about the feelings of a child when we count the candles- and the sad reality.

Besides, the calm of the ocean contrasts with the wind, which we can notice through the dead leave entering into the room by the open window, suggests this gap.

Moreover, there is the strange perspective adopted, a kind of low-angle shot which cut the room. It creates a sensation of unsteadiness, because the proportions and the real vision we are accustomed to have of such a room, even in low-angle shot, are not respected. The painter plays with reality, she deforms it and provokes the spectator's mind. Then we don't know if we are in a dream -which looks more to a nightmare- or in reality.

For instance, the two sunsets in the background or the tree which seems to leans on the ocean, create a paradoxal and impossible scene...

Autumn, 2000 Acrylic

Here, we have another representation of a birthday party.

The room is still empty, with the ocean relied to the house. The loneliness is traduced by the only one chair, which is empty, when all the preparative for a party are present. Besides, the water we imagine all around this room and the mountains all along the water create this feeling too. We have the impression to be on a remote and little island, and that create some oppressive and worrying atmosphere, intensified by the cold colours. Moreover, the dead leave remind the absence, the solitude. And last, the objects hanged at the wall are a bit stressful. They look like horrible and emaciated hands, and the dark sculpture seems to be a Virgin, but it also looks like a crow. These elements enter in the thematic of the autumn. In the clichés, it is a mourn season, sad and melancholic.

The spectator can notice, again, all the paradoxes in this picture: the water which is as smooth as oil and the wind quite violent, because it opens the door and the window, makes the leave enter into the house and lifts the tablecloth; the tree losing its leave, in autumn, so, when we know this scene is happening during the New Year Eve, that's to say in winter; the different angles of the view, between the representation of the carpet -it is almost a low-angle shot- and the landscape in the background -with a horizontal view,... All the spatial and temporal marks disappear.

Then, we don't really know if we are in a nightmare or the reality, and if the scene really represents the vision of a little girl. The candles are seven, there is in the room a predominance of the pink, but there are too many stressful elements to suggest the imaginary world of a young girl. Once more, the spectator is completely lost in a world he can't explain and understand.