Ana Mendieta: "Sweating Blood" (1975).
image copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York

Ana Mendieta (Cuba, USA * 1948 †1985)

When she was 13, Ana Mendieta's parents sent her and her sister away from Cuba to live in the US. This experience of living in exile was formative for Mendieta's artistic work. She began working less frequently with art objects already while studying painting and started doing performances instead. Her artworks touch on themes of violence against women, exile, the impermanence of the body, and forces of nature. Ana Mendieta was involved in numerous feminist art projects, such as Artists in Residence Gallery, New York, but she remained critical toward mainstream 'white' feminism which marginalized black women and immigrants. She died young due to a tragic accident.

In her video performance "Sweating Blood," we see Ana Mendieta's head close up. Blood collects on her forehead before slowly trickling down her face.

"Alma Silueta en Fuego" is one of Ana Mendieta's 'earth-body works' in which she actively changes the landscape by joining her body or her ghost-like silhouette with nature in a symbiotic gesture.

"Untitled (Flower Person)" shows a figure made of white peonies floating down a stream and slowly breaking apart.