Proof of Concept
retrospecting
the ephemeral activist art of
Armando Rascón
Proof of Concept is a retrospective exhibition catalog of the media works of Armando Rascón. Tracing the development from early Super 8 film to the advent of activist media and ephemeral works that have defined his practice from 1976 to 2026, the book explores the artist’s penchant for a range of subject matter from California’s postcolonial history to queer activism with earlier backdrops of experimental sound works dating to the late Seventies and Eighties. The book incorporates plentiful WebAR codes to supplant transport of sound and video clip experiences to the reader’s page.
Prefaced with a poignant introduction by Los Angeles’ own iconic Armando Durón, the book is accompanied by a series of comprehensive essays that chronicle distinct phases of the artist’s life by cultural critic Norma Alarcón alongside renown curators Dan Cameron, Daniell Cornell, Rosalía Romero, Victor Zamudio-Taylor and Claudia Zapata.
Buy the book: August 21 book release
Published by TORO LIBRIS LLC, a new imprint out of Barrio Logan in San Diego, this first release portends a left-of-center series of unusual titles from the expansive field of contemporary art.
About the book
Prueba de Concepto:
una retrospectiva efímera y activista
de Armando Rascón
Proof of Concept is a retrospective exhibition catalog of the media works of Armando Rascón. Tracing the development from early Super 8 film to the advent of activist media works and the ephemera that has defined his practice from 1976 to 2026, the book pits the artist’s penchant for a range of subjects –from California’s postcolonial history to queer activism, with earlier backdrops of experimental sound works dating to the late Seventies and early Eighties. The book incorporates plentiful WebAR codes to supplant sound and video clip experiences for the reader.
The book includes full color plates and documentation of a full range of spectral media installations that now only exist in picture form. The sharp focus concentrates on the elliptical nature of postcolonial studies at the intersection with the changing social landscape of the twenty-first century. Ultimately, Proof of Concept exists as an examination of a physically fictive exhibition awash with a lifespan of extant works and their extinct ephemeral counterparts.
Words from Norma Alarcón
In this light Existential Monochrome challenges us to choose
between spectatorship and participation in the construction of a new
world knowledge. Questioning whether the state, regardless of its
status in the global political economy, represents its constituency;
asking if the sloganeering utopian movements of the 60s have collapsed
for good with nothing to take their place; pointing to the absurdity of
laws which fail to deliver justice as leaders abuse power and authority;
and wondering if we will be intrepid enough to derail the “existential
monochrome”, Rasc6n as other political artists today point to the
degradation of our current political milieu in which the electorate’s
only vote is to withdraw. Artists like Rascón give a hand and ask that
we restructure the loops of historical politics and the contemporary
circuits of signification for a new world knowledge which may disclose
economies of relations of difference for a novel participatory action, a
political grammar for the 21st century.
Incisive contribution to Armando Rascón: Occupied Aztlán, 1994, reprinted with
Professor Alarcón’s blessing in 2026.
TORO LIBRIS LLC
Years of planning have finally come to bear a Summer harvest for readers of new media and experimental art. We are a small press that has determined to make a difference in our local neighborhood of Barrio Logan, beneath the Coronado bridge in what we call Chicano Park. Our community has provided us an opportunity to rise to the challenge in what writers like Gloria Anzaldua framed as the Nuevx Mestizaxe.
TORO LIBRIS LLC aspires to the saying “where you plant me I will bloom.” Come join us in expanding our world to the outer reaches of expression. Templates await bright minds as we explore further.
