Short-Lived Artist Ana Mendieta

Chojnacki Caroline
Aug 24, 2017 · 5 min read
1974

Mendieta shows you a sturdy wall drawing in red paint. She uses her own body to direct our gaze to her own female body; this self-capture is what she’s known for; a participant of her work.

Ana Mendieta.

Have you heard of this artist? I’ve heard of Frida Kahlo.
I never heard of Ana Mendieta, until I took an art history class.

There is no movie that I know about, but a film starring someone like Rosario Dawson would make her life and her art more known and also her story is quite tragic; she dies at a young age of 36, on September 8, 1985, in Greenwich Village, NY.

What intrigues me is she was trying to bring awareness about rape that happens on campus in Iowa. This topic is rising and more present in the now with social media.

Mendieta studied body art at the University of Iowa. Her works are photographs and film media where she incorporates death, rebirth, and spiritual transformation.

She expressed pain, suffering, cultural displacement and feminism and was considered to be a representative of the feminist art movement.

[Photographs of ( Untitled 1972) glass and body imprints]

In these images, She presses a square plexiglass on her body to distort her features. This plexiglass performing art is where her body is the sculpture and its introduction to her through the multimedia program and The Center for Performing Arts in Iowa University.

[Photographs of (Untitled 1970 )and anima are female bodies]

Her early work the “Earth-Body series” created in creeks and on the land around Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The series made an enormous impact on performance body art in the 1970s.

1974 Mendieta creates a short silent film, NSU Art museum shows her video series and talks about her films in detail.

Her filmed performance capture the haunting rapes that happened on campus at Iowa University, and she brought spiritual elements and a feminist approach to the violence. She created over 80 films more than any other artist in the 1970s

The Silueta Series (Meaning Silhouette) categorized in rough order: 1973–1980. She has over 1000 images and footage over these years that are not in any particular order and galleries are uncertain how she wanted to display some of her pictures. Critics have argued if all her works starting from 1973 untill the end of her death should be classified under the Silueta Series. Mendieta did say in 1977 that Silueta series is a long series that will never end.

The Silueta Series widely recognized as important work in the Cuban-American community. Described as feminized nature and praised by critics as her best work.

Repeatedly nature and earth elements are documented in her series, and she would create a form using herself or the earth, dirt, fire, gunpowder, water, grass, etc.

[Images untitled (1977)]

As you notice in the series, the female form becomes unidentifiable, and she uses the female form in such a conventional way, but her works have been argued by other critics saying it could be either female or male.

Image Atabey (Mother of the Waters), 1981 Photo-etching

Her carved images on caves in Havana, Cuba is where she carved away or added material, and she helps us view her silhouettes as either male or female figures.

1984–1985, some of her final images before her tragic death in September were apart of a series of large pieces like the Totem Grove. It’s not certain if she intended to share these sculptures individually or in a group series. What captivates me is she uses gunpowder to make the dark marks on the images, and she left the stumps to represent the female body.

[Untitled (Totem Grove Series), 1984–85 Series of four sculptures of wood and gunpowder]

Her tragic past and mysterious death recorded as murder; her husband pushed her, or she committed suicide. This mystery is still not fully known to the public. But she had a big following, and a lot of feminists were upset about her passing.

I hope a film or a movie documenting her unique talent, or a biography of her personal life. I know I will be watching it. Especially, if Rosario Dawson is the main lead, she is a very memorable and captivating actress.

Works Cited

Best, Susan. The Serial Spaces of Ana Mendieta. Association of Art History 30.1 (2007): 57–82. Academia. Web. 02 March 2012.
<
http://unsw.academia.edu/SusanBest/Papers/165120/The_serial_spaces_of_Ana_Mendieta>

Drainmag. Dziedzic, Erin, Savannah College of Art and Design Art Department. n.d.Web.02.March.2012. <http://drainmag.com/contentNOVEMBER/REVIEWS_INTERVIEWS/Ana_Mendieta_Review.htm>

Electronic Arts Intermix, New York, NY. 1977–2012. Web. 02. March 2012. <http://www.eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=373>

Mendieta, Ana. Untitled Totem Grove Series, 1984–1985. Galerie Lelong: The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection. Web. 02 March. 2012. <http://drainmag.com/contentNOVEMBER/REVIEWS_INTERVIEWS/Ana_Mendieta_Review.htm>

Mendieta, Ana. Atabey, 1981 . Galerie Lelong: The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection. Web. 02 March. 2012.<http://drainmag.com/contentNOVEMBER/REVIEWS_INTERVIEWS/Ana_Mendieta_Review.htm>

Mendieta, Ana. Imagen de Yagul,1973. Galerie Lelong: The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection. Web. 02 March. 2012.<http://drainmag.com/contentNOVEMBER/REVIEWS_INTERVIEWS/Ana_Mendieta_Review.htm>

Mendieta, Ana. Untitled Body Tracks, 1974. Galerie Lelong: The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection. Web. 02 March. 2012<http://drainmag.com/contentNOVEMBER/REVIEWS_INTERVIEWS/Ana_Mendieta_Review.htm>

Mendieta, Ana. Untitled Glass on Body Imprints, 1972. Galerie Lelong: The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection. Web. 02 March. 2012<http://drainmag.com/contentNOVEMBER/REVIEWS_INTERVIEWS/Ana_Mendieta_Review.htm>

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Chojnacki Caroline

Written by

Multimedia Artist, Freelance Writer, ESL Instructor, Parent, Creative Passions. Publication in WordWorks Magazine, a writer with AMI, blogger.

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