Tag: ana mendieta

[←] Hans Bellmer – Bound (1959); [→] Ana Mendieta – Untitled {Guanaroca [First Woman]} (1981)

I have been watching from the sidelines and even occasionally wading into the melee on the topic of the responsibilities of art and makers of art in this time and place.

It’s not that I think it’s an unimportant conversation–it’s crucial. I just don’t really understand why every time we have this conversation, it seems like it’s the first time we’re having it.

I fancy myself a bit of a curatrix–y’all likely see me as a snobby poseur; still, I’ve been thinking about Bellmer in the context of Ana Mendieta and vice versa.

The idea has sort of gotten stuck in my head that not only are they fascinating artists to juxtapose–like I could put together an entire exhibit just on the interplay between their respective deployment of gender symbolism.

However, beyond even that, I think it’s interesting the way they both strove to stand against the prevailing ethos of their time without buying into an either/or arch- dichotomy.

I sort of envision an exhibition that is a joint retrospective of their respective bodies of work presented side by side. Call it something like RESIST! Hegemony.

Alas, I don’t have the clout or gallery connections to do this and I don’t know that there’s enough critical work to back my thesis–although my gut says that there’s plenty, I’m just not yet familiar with it.

Would anyone be interested in potentially seeing such an exhibit even if it’s only ever lives on this blog?

Ana Mendieta – Blood Sign #2 1974

Mendieta genius is indisputable but I have no goddamn clue what-so-fucking-ever of how to approach it.

A lot of ink has been spilled about her performance of gender, her concern with identity politics. Yeah. Check. Got it. I see that too. But what about the questions of medium in her work: photographs of sculptures, performance as sculpture, photography of performance as sculpture, the inherently ephemeral nature of performance rendered repeatable via video.

It’s all a complete mindfuck to me–but not alienating more a fascinating puzzle I can’t tear myself away from no matter how little progress I make.

Mendieta only cracked for me in the last week as a result of ‘discovering’ her ‘Untitled (Rape Scene).

***Trigger Warning***

I recommend read the Tate’s comments on the work first as they describe the images and you can decide from there whether or not you actually want to view them.

I am not ready to talk about the images. That will take months, if not years. But something clicked for me about Mendieta’s work: the zen-like focus of her execution counter-balanced by randomization– the way the paint on her hands smears unevenly, the muddy lighting at the scene of the crime–utilizes her own body as a fulcrum to not only balance multifarious and otherwise dichotomous elements but to enact great violence upon innocence that offers the required blood sacrifice without perpetuating any further harm.