Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-American artist who, in her tragically short career, made over 100 films in direct dialogue with her work in performance, sculpture and photography. This screening presents a selection of short films Mendieta made between 1975 and 1981.
In 1975, the artist experimented with different imaging and processing technologies including video and Cinefluography (X-ray motion film). These are the last films in which she appears.
In Mendieta’s Silueta films (1974–81), we see the artist’s silhouette inscribed into various outdoor landscapes in Iowa and Mexico using natural elements such as earth, sand, flowers, rock and grass, often in conjunction with flammable materials such as fireworks and gunpowder.
The programme concludes with two films shot in Mendieta’s native country of Cuba. These works capture the artist’s rock etchings and sand sculpture of goddess figures from the Pre-Columbian Taíno culture.
My art is grounded on the primordial accumulations, the unconscious urges that animate the world
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta Butterfly 1975, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece) 1976, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta X-ray c.1975, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Untitled: Silueta Series (Gunpowder Works) 1980, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Flower Person, Flower Body 1975, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Blood Inside Outside 1975, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Untitled: Silueta Series 1978, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Energy Charge 1975, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Esculturas Rupestres (Rupestrian Sculptures) 1981, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Untitled: Silueta Series 1979, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Untitled: Silueta Series 1978, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Ana Mendieta Untitled 1981, film still. Copyright The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, L.L.C. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. and Alison Jacques Gallery
Programme
Blood Inside Outside, United States 1975, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 4 min
Flower Person, Flower Body, United States 1975, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 6 min
Silueta Sangrienta, United States 1975, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 2min
Energy Charge, United States 1975, 16mm transferred to digital, colour, silent, 1 min
Butterfly, United States 1975, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 3 min
X-ray, United States c.1975, 16mm transferred to digital, black and white, sound, 2 min
Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece), United States / Mexico 1976, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 3 min
Untitled: Silueta Series, United States 1978, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 7 min
Untitled: Silueta Series, United States 1978, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 3 min
Untitled: Silueta Series, United States 1979, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 3 min
Untitled: Silueta Series (Gunpowder Works), United States 1980, Super 8 transferred to digital, colour, silent, 4 min
Esculturas Rupestres (Rupestrian Sculptures), United States / Cuba 1981, Super 8 transferred to digital, black and white, silent, 9 min
Untitled, United States / Cuba 1981, Super 8 transferred to digital, black and white, silent, 2 min
See more from Ana Mendieta
This event forms part of the Tate Film Pioneers series Ana Mendieta: Body Tracks. Over two screenings, the series presents 27 of the over 100 film and video works made by the artist over a ten-year period. Also see Ana Mendieta: ‘Pain of Cuba / body I am’.
Four photographs by Ana Mendieta can also be seen as part of the Feminism and Media room of the free Media Networks collection display in the Boiler House on Level 4 East.
Biography
Ana Mendieta (1948–1985, Cuba) was a Cuban-American artist whose practice activated a potent dialogue between sculpture, performance, photography, film, video, painting and site-specific installation. Her works draw in a vast array of cultural, religious and artistic influences, from Afro-Cuban and indigenous Caribbean traditions to Catholicism to conceptual art and performance. They explore themes of mortality, the female body, human connection to the natural world, violence, displacement and cultural, spiritual, racial and gender identity. She is best known for her Silueta series, or what she has termed her ‘earth-body’ works, in which her silhouette is inscribed through various materials in outdoor, and later indoor, landscapes, recorded through photography and film.
