Repetition and Distance in ASCO's fotonovelas

Abstract

This essay analyzes the fotonovelas produced by the Los Angeles-based group ASCO in the early 1980's, works recently claimed as key productions of later American art history. Judith Butler's definition of the performative is takes as a point of departure for the inquiry, paying special attention to how repetition features in them as a mechanism to reformulate the genre of fotonovela.