Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta (18 November 1948 – 8 September 1985) was a Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who known for her “earth-body” art work.
Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba. At age 12, in order to escape Fidel Castro’s regime, Ana and her sister Raquelin were sent to the United States by their parents. Through Operation Peter Pan, a collaborative program run by the U.S. Government and the Catholic Charities, Mendieta and her sister were moved through several institutions and foster homes in Iowa.
Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985 in New York from a fall from her 34th floor apartment in Greenwich Village, where she lived with her husband of eight months, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Andre was tried and acquitted of her murder. During the trial, Andre’s lawyer described Mendieta’s death as a possible accident or suicide. The cause of her death may never be known.
Mendieta’s work was in its essence autobiographical and focused on themes including feminism, violence, life, death, place and belonging. Mendieta often focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the Earth, most particularly in her “Silueta Series” (1973–1980). The series involved Mendieta creating female silhouettes in nature – in mud, sand and grass – with natural materials ranging from leaves and twigs to blood, and making body prints or painting her outline or silhouette onto a wall.
When Ana Mendieta began her “Silueta Series” in the 1970s, both land art and body art were being explored by an influx of performance artists.
Mendieta was possibly the first to combine the two in what she coined as “earth-body” sculptures.
She often used her naked body to explore and connect with the Earth, as seen in her piece Imagen de Yagul, from the series Silueta Works in Mexico 1973-1977.
Mendieta also created the female silhouette using nature as both her canvas and her medium. She used her body to create silhouettes in grass; she created silhouettes in sand and dirt; she created silhouettes of fire and filmed them burning.
Through these works, which cross the boundaries of performance, film and photography, Mendieta explored her relationship with place as well as a larger relationship with mother Earth or the “Great Goddess” figure.
The significance of the mother figure, referring to the Mayan deity Ix Chel, the mother of the Gods. Many have interpreted Mendieta’s recurring use of this mother figure, and her own female silhouette, as feminist art. However, because Mendieta’s work explores many ideas including life, death, identity and place all at once, it cannot be categorized as part of one idea or movement.