Ana Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1948, and died in 1985. Her early death, in 1985, in New York, triggered was highly controversial, as suspicions arose that she had been thrown from a 13th floor window by her husband. Quite recently, her work gained visibility in queer research and political circles when Bloody Signs #2 was used as the cover of Judith Butler’s book Senses of the Subject, as well as the cover photo of her Facebook page.
In Ana Mendieta’s own words:
“I have been carrying on a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette)… I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). Through my earth/body sculptures I become one with the earth… I become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of my body…”
To learn more about Ana Mendieta check:
A video on Mendieta Retrospective Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery
The trailer of a documentary on Mendietta’s life in Rome