Ana Mendieta Flashcards
Why were Ana and her sister sent to live in the USA?
Ana was born in Cuba 10 years before the 1959 revolution in 1948. At the age of 12, her and her 14 year old sister Raquelin glad to escape the Fidel Castro communist regime whilst there was still relative freedom of movement. Flew to USA through Project Pedro Pan, a scheme led by the USA government and Catholic charities that ran from 1960 to 1962 where 14,000 children were exiled to the US. This scheme was kept on the down low so it was not shut down and seen as an anti political enterprise. However, after the tension of the 1962 missile crisis, the US became wary of Cuba and ended all relations.
What was Ana’s experience like in the USA?
- Lonely and frightening, her father did not join her for 18 years as he was arrested after involvement in the Bay of Pigs rebellion aiming to topple Castro and their mum was not able to reach Cuba till 1966.
- Sent to Iowa where it wasn’t at all diverse in its population in the 1960s, they were the first Latinas that their class mates had seen. They arrived at the right of the civil rights era where racial tension was stressed, with Iowa possessing very few PoC. Mendieta’s perception of herself changed dramatically and the girls started to recognise their race. Due to being darker skin than the European ancestored Iowans, the girls were targets of racial prejudices where they faced much bullying. Thus, the idea that Ana had been sent away from something terrible to be treated with revulsion gave Ana extremely confused thoughts into shaping her as an artist.
How did Ana’s childhood experience affect her as an adult?
Ana wrote a poem when she was 33 titled ‘Dolor de patria, Cuerpo soy que mi orfandad vivo.’ This poem centralised the human body as the site of her experience of exile and orphan hood. Dolor of course suggests that there’s a sensation of pain that wraps together these emotions and experiences, specific to Anas body.
Where did Ana start to study and what artistic style did she develop?
- Studied at Iowa university where she found a preference for body art which is very conceptual, carrying it out and then recording it. She worked with natural wood to create a engraved sculpture using gunpowder to produce indentations. In other work, she also used dynamite. However, in most of her work, Ana’s body is the creative focal point in photographs and video. She liked to press her body against glass partitions to distort and contour her figure. She pushed her face into new shapes through modification with pieces of material bulked around her mouth and cheeks.
- On campus, she performed a simulation of the after effects of rape- she covered herself in mud and seemed to fuse with a tree. She laid down on the earth to create an outline of her body
- she liked to give herself a hair transplant by adding fake facial hair in order to poke fun at gender norms and provoke the question that men’s get their artwork taken more seriously.
As an adult, how did Ana view Cuba?
Whilst touring the world presenting her works, Ana was excited to return to Cuba, proven by her enthusiastic postcards she sent sent whilst she revisited Cuba. She was encouraged to practice her artistry on the island where she created silhouettes like cave painting in Cuban caves. However, as time went on she realised that Cuba had a strict regime still and she was not truly free in artistic expression.
What was the message of Ana’s work?
Performance art, land art and body art. The Silueta series has such a recognisable stamp to her individuality. Artwork- like the piece in which she smeared her hands and arms full of paint across a canvas, showed there was presence with absence- a space left behind a silhouette. It showed the dislocation and not belonging of someone that was exiled to another country. Mendietas work had relations to our presence here on earth- she wanted humans to feel that although we do not grow out of the earth, we have the same commitment as flowers and trees to make the world beautiful and respect it.
What was Ana’s marriage like?
Ana’s marriage to Carl Andre was very volatile where many speculated there was quite a rivalry between the two as they were both artists. There was rensentment between him and Ana as Ana believed he had such great prominence in the 80s due to being a man. She was pushed out of her apartments building and died in 1985.
Ana Mendieta’s view on sexual violence.
Her Silueta series was to protest the fact that female bodies were only ever the matter of objectification- Mandietas presence demanded recognition that the female body could be seen something different. With her work where she was covered in mud and camouflaged into the tree, she was to represent how women are unnamed victims of rape with no identity. However, Ana forced the audience to reflect on the situation and empathise- Ana gave an identity to those living in the secrecy of shame.
-After the rape and murder of a fellow college student, Ana smeared herself in blood and had herself tied to a table where she then invited an audience in to bear witness to a rape scene.
Why did Ana use many earth silhouettes?
Wanted to show holism and that we are all a part of something much bigger than just being human.
Ana’s views on gender.
The facial hair transplants wanted to challenge gender construction whilst also challenging the expected way of female expression and representation. Many of Ana’s works also included the female genitalia, part of Ana’s feminism. Wanted to challenge the secrecy of the vagina.
