.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These twelve photographs by the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta are not only seminal works within her rich oeuvre but are arguably some of the most remarkable and important works of art created in the third quarter of the twentieth century. As the 2004-5 retrospective Ana Mendieta: Earth Body at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden amply demonstrated, this artist was a pioneer not only within the genres of performance art and body art, but opened up avenues in a variety of critical discourses that have irrevocably impacted contemporary art production globally. Mendieta's work and the dialogues they have generated continue to spark crucial investigations into the nature of diasporic and feminist art practices, as well as the power and relevancy of time-based, ephemeral actions captured in a variety of media (photography, video, film).
Taken from her 1973-1977 series Silueta Works in Mexico, these twelve documentary photographs represent some of her most iconic images. There is an extraordinarily rich body of scholarly writing on this work by some of the most important art historians and critics of both Latin American art and contemporary art in general. Created in the region of Oaxaca, they record Mendieta's artistic development over a span of roughly five years as she connected with Mexico's Pre-Columbian and folkloric cultures as a means of articulating her own ideas concerning place, time and the mythological power of women. For some of these works there also exist short, silent films that record their disappearance, a critical element in her exploration of the passage of time. The elements of fire, water, and earth were utilized in unique ways as active participants in the premeditated dissolution of her silhouette in nature over differing spans of time.
In Ánima, Silueta de Cohetes (Soul, Silhouette of Fireworks), Mendieta commissioned a local Mexican fireworks maker to create her silhouette in a cane armature strung with fireworks, similar to those used during traditional festivals. Set ablaze with the help of the artisan and her partner at the time, the artist Hans Breder, its fiery disappearance against a night sky was captured on film by Mendieta to great effect. The element of water is in evidence in three of the works: in one red pigment has been placed on her indented silhouette in the sand while in another red flowers form her silhouette (both photographs were taken at the beach at La Ventosa), while in the other her silhouette lies at the center of a large imprinted hand. In the first two she records the waves as they relentlessly erode her image while a similar fate is implied in the last. Here she introduces her own Cuban religious heritage of Santería; the red symbolizes blood sacrifices and the hand the spiritual presence of Olokun-Yemayá, the African orisha presiding over the sea. They are not only offerings to this female deity, but reference her displacement from her country of origin from which the sea spatially and metaphorically separated her. These photographs are attempts at healing and repairing the sense of rupture from her island home she felt so keenly at the time.
In a number of photographs Mendieta used archaeological and colonial sites in Mexico as settings for her silhouette. Imagen de Yagul (Image from Yagul) taken in 1973 is considered to be the work that marked the beginning of her Silueta Series and like others taken at the archaeological site of Yagul reflect her engagement with Mexican notions of the connection between the dead and the living (such as those expressed in the Día de los muertos celebrations). Other photographs were taken at the unfinished colonial-era basilica located in the church and monastery complex of Cuilapán de Guerrero, outside Oaxaca. In these she has placed her silhouette formed on the earth, or of thorny twigs placed directly in a wall niche intended for religious statuary. In one spectacular example the imprint of her body in red on white cloth hangs in a niche as link between pre- and post-colonial notions of the divine feminine. The impact of Ana Mendieta's projects will continue to echo and reverberate for a long time, spurring artists and curators to engage with the many ideas and visual strategies she introduced.
Susan L. Aberth, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
Taken from her 1973-1977 series Silueta Works in Mexico, these twelve documentary photographs represent some of her most iconic images. There is an extraordinarily rich body of scholarly writing on this work by some of the most important art historians and critics of both Latin American art and contemporary art in general. Created in the region of Oaxaca, they record Mendieta's artistic development over a span of roughly five years as she connected with Mexico's Pre-Columbian and folkloric cultures as a means of articulating her own ideas concerning place, time and the mythological power of women. For some of these works there also exist short, silent films that record their disappearance, a critical element in her exploration of the passage of time. The elements of fire, water, and earth were utilized in unique ways as active participants in the premeditated dissolution of her silhouette in nature over differing spans of time.
In Ánima, Silueta de Cohetes (Soul, Silhouette of Fireworks), Mendieta commissioned a local Mexican fireworks maker to create her silhouette in a cane armature strung with fireworks, similar to those used during traditional festivals. Set ablaze with the help of the artisan and her partner at the time, the artist Hans Breder, its fiery disappearance against a night sky was captured on film by Mendieta to great effect. The element of water is in evidence in three of the works: in one red pigment has been placed on her indented silhouette in the sand while in another red flowers form her silhouette (both photographs were taken at the beach at La Ventosa), while in the other her silhouette lies at the center of a large imprinted hand. In the first two she records the waves as they relentlessly erode her image while a similar fate is implied in the last. Here she introduces her own Cuban religious heritage of Santería; the red symbolizes blood sacrifices and the hand the spiritual presence of Olokun-Yemayá, the African orisha presiding over the sea. They are not only offerings to this female deity, but reference her displacement from her country of origin from which the sea spatially and metaphorically separated her. These photographs are attempts at healing and repairing the sense of rupture from her island home she felt so keenly at the time.
In a number of photographs Mendieta used archaeological and colonial sites in Mexico as settings for her silhouette. Imagen de Yagul (Image from Yagul) taken in 1973 is considered to be the work that marked the beginning of her Silueta Series and like others taken at the archaeological site of Yagul reflect her engagement with Mexican notions of the connection between the dead and the living (such as those expressed in the Día de los muertos celebrations). Other photographs were taken at the unfinished colonial-era basilica located in the church and monastery complex of Cuilapán de Guerrero, outside Oaxaca. In these she has placed her silhouette formed on the earth, or of thorny twigs placed directly in a wall niche intended for religious statuary. In one spectacular example the imprint of her body in red on white cloth hangs in a niche as link between pre- and post-colonial notions of the divine feminine. The impact of Ana Mendieta's projects will continue to echo and reverberate for a long time, spurring artists and curators to engage with the many ideas and visual strategies she introduced.
Susan L. Aberth, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.