Ana Mendieta

An artist which has truly inspired me is Ana Mendieta. When I first started learning about her and what she did, I was amazed by her passion to be within something. For we all have that yearning to belong, don’t we? Ana Mendieta is no longer here on earth physically but her work and spirit still remains alive and growing. Her mysterious life ending, her strong voice on identity, feminine issues, and her Latin American upbringing made her work unlike any other artists working in the experimental mediums of film, video, performance and photography in the 1970s. Ana was trying to get within earth.

“My exploration through my art of the relationship between myself and nature has been a clear result of my having been torn from my homeland during my adolescence. The making of my silueta in nature keeps (make) the transition between my homeland and my new home. It is a way of reclaiming my roots and becoming one with nature.”- Ana Mendieta

By documenting this with photography or super-8 film, she creates poignant, primitive and spiritual acts of life and death that will last forever. She would mold woman body forms with mud or sand in water (Siluetas); lay dead nude with flowers growing from her naked body in an old Mexican ruin; pour mud, grass, and sticks all over her body and blend herself into the background of a tree (Tree of Life); paint the wall with her arms, hands, and body in blood (Body Tracks); or burn with fire a human form (Alma/Soul). Her materials used will eventually return to nature.

Read two articles with diverging perspectives on Ana after being "moved" by seeing her work at the Hirshorn Museum (although, I don't like Blake Gopnik’s brass attitude!). Article 1 by Blake Gospnik and Article 2 by Michael O'Sullivan.