Jean Stein

Portfolio
Author(s): Ana Mendieta and Charles Merewether
Source: Grand Street, No. 67, Fire (Winter, 1999), pp. 40-50
Published by: Jean Stein
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25008434 .
Accessed: 07/10/2013 16:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Jean Stein is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Grand Street.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
LDLiLDLiL0LiDIIELEF

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Anima (Alma/Soul) a.k.a. Sileuta en Feugo, 197

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 VVI.,

,
V'k
4w

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Untitled (from the SiluetaSeries), 1975.

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

r C
IW b.,,.;~~~

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 LEFT:Untitled the Silueta
(from Series), 1981.
ARovrm.Untitled (Series Volca'n#2)- 10-70.

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 LEFT (from
(BOTOM):
SiuntadCeited the'FeishetaSeries), 1978.
ABVE-Unt Ite(fothSiua Series,198._,

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Untitled (from the Fetish Series), 1977.

This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
AnaMendieta
In the summerof I975 theyoungCuban-American
artistAnaMendieta initiatedan ongoing seriesof
works based on the silhouetteof her body.Until this
timeMendieta had focusedon painting and
performance;the introductionof the silhouette
enabledher to removeherself from thework by
providing thearmaturefora surrogatefigure.The
bodywas now overtlyabsent, and theviewer'sgaze
focusedon an outline that tracedtheunseen bodyof
Mendieta herself.
Mendietamade her firstmajor silhouettepiece,
SiluetadeYemaya(Silhouette
o.fYemaya),atOldMan's
Creek inIowa-a favoritesite close towhere she lived.
Covering awooden raftwith dark red velvet, she laid a
silhouetteof herselfmade fromwhite flowerson top
of the raft and set it afloat on the river. Shortly
afterward,Mendieta producedher first firepiece:
SiluetadeCenizas(Silhouette Following the
ofAshes).
writings ofMirceaEliade,Mendieta sawbothwater
and fire as sources of energy, as well as symbolic
mediums of consecration,baptism, and thepassage
of the soul from death to rebirth. Silueta deYemaya and
SiluetadeCenizasrepresentedthebeginning of, and
impetus for,a bodyofwork thatwould occupy
Mendieta untilher death in I985.
During thenext fouryearsMendieta produced
more than ioo silhouette pieces inwhich fire, with its
power to consume and symbolically renew, and ashes
were centralcomponents. InNovember I975
Mendieta produced the filmedactionAlmaSiluetaen
Fuego(SoulSilhouette which beganwith the
inFire),
burning of a silhouette made from awhite sheet. In an
earlier work she had used awhite sheet like a shroud,
but here there was no symbolic corpse, only a
scorched imprintleft in theearth.The disappearance
of the body was made explicit by the trace that
remained:smolderingashes in thehollowed-out
silhouetteof her disembodied self.
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Ina notebookMendieta kept during this time, she
drewon her childhood experienceof theAfro
Caribbeanreligionof Santeriaaswell as on theoriesof
duplicationormimesis todefineher artisticpractice.
Mimesis can be understoodas away of reproducingthe
self and thereforemaking itother,with a consequent
emancipationof thesubject.The economy thatdrove
Mendieta'swork was thedialecticalmovement between
abandonmentand freedom,betweendisembodiment
and a communionwith the forcesof nature.
"Abandonment" was precisely the termthat
Mendieta had used todescribe theprofound sense of
exile and estrangementshe feltafterbeing sent at age 12
from her native Cuba at an orphanage in Iowa. The
siluetabecame away ofmoving outsideof herself,which
she saw as creating the possibility of a return to the
earth. Itcorresponds, inpart, towhat Freudcalled "the
uncanny," inwhich doubling or mimesis is away of
effectinga heterogeneous relationtoand dispossession
of the self. For Freud this was "originally an insurance
against thedestruction to theego, an energeticdenialof
thepowerof death."
On February23, I976,Mendieta's exhibitionNanigo
BurialandFilmwork opened at the II2Greene Street
Gallery inNew YorkCity.The principalwork, TheBurial
ofNanigo,was a siluetaof herselfmade fromforty-seven
litblack candlesandpresented ina darkenedroom.
Mendieta continued to draw on Afro-Caribbean culture,
in thiscase referringto the secretmale religioussociety
ofNanigo and its recognitionand disavowalofwomen
as sacred and sacrificial subjects. On the wall beside The
Mendieta projecteda slideof her I975
BurialofNanigo,
work Silueta deCenizas. However, rather than choosing
an image of the burned-out silhouette, she projected an
image of thework in flames and turned it upright so
that the figure appeared to be standing. This
transformationofSiluetadeCenizasintoa symbolof
regeneration through firewould lead to her Anima
49
works of the sameyear.
Throughout I976,Mendietaworked extensivelyin
both IowaandMexico, developing the ideaof the
silhouetteand using differentmaterials and sites to
producepermutationsofmeaning. InAugust,while
stayingjustoutsideof Oaxacaat SanFelipe,Mendieta
soughtout a localcohetero-apersonwho makes
fireworks-and askedhim tomake a silhouette toher
size. She lay down on a large piece ofwhite paper and
had him tracetheoutlineof her body.From this
made a bamboo armaturefor the
templatethe cohetero
fireworks.Sixweeks later,thecompleted structure
arrived;setting ituprighton the sideof a hill,Mendieta
waited fordusk and then lit it.She titledthework Anima
(Alma/Soul).Itgeneratedan energyand radianceof
tremendouspower and thenconsumed itself, leaving
nothing but the silhouette'scharredoutline.
The figuresuggested theMexican effigies ofJudas
made with fireworksatEaster-timeand ignitedon
EasterSunday. With itsarmsupraisedand legspinned
together,itwas iconographicallysimilarto the imageof
theAnimaSola,apopularLatinAmerican-Catholic
image that depicts awoman standing in the flames of
purgatory,her chainedhands held up towardheaven.
According to the socialhistorianJeanMeyer,writing on
Mexico of the I92oS, theChristian figureof martyrdom,
especially that of Christ on the Cross, was as much a radicallyother,heterogeneous-the artistshowed a
model for peasants inMexico as itwas forwomen in
medievalEurope.Through offering theself for the
redemptionof thecommunity,themartyrentersa
spriritual state. It is this empowerment of the
dispossessed that accounts for the popularity of such
images as the Anima Sola in Latin America. Symbolizing
the lost soul seeking redemption,she commands
respectforher actof self-sacrificeand her submission
to the fire of purification.
50
This content downloaded from 128.228.173.41 on Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:44:25 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ForMendieta the fire thatboth consumed and
animatedprovidedthevital force thatwould release the
soul.Beginning in thesummerof I978,Mendieta
introduceda new seriesof burned silhouettes that
brought to this sceneof transformationtheeroticismof
the body and the return of the body to the earth.
Narrowing and hollowing out the silhouetteform intoa
deep recess,Mendieta transformedtheoudine of the
figure intoa shape suggesting awomb or vulva.Lining
the formwith sulfuror gunpowder,Mendieta then
ignited thepiece and photographed it.
In the short-livedI979Volcanseries,Mendieta
furtheremphasized thisnotion of theearthas the
primordialsourceof female sexualityand power,
transformingthe silhouette intoa volcano-likecrater
filledwith livecoals thatemittedmassive amountsof
smoke.Mendieta,who had been readingabout the idea
of "mythicalgeology" inRobertGoldwater'sbook
Primitivism inModernArt,wrote, "Thereisno original
substance nor a part to redeem. There is a void, the
orphanhood, theearthof thebeginning, unbaptized.
There is aboveall the searchfororigin.Nature: the
matrix of eros, thehotbedofthe gods."
Using fire and ashes, Mendieta was able tomake the
idea of separation and death the foundation of her art.
By abandoningand replicatingthe self-making it
desire to challengea symbolicorderbuilton the
exclusion ofwomen and, at the same time, to go
beyond abjection and exile. It appeals to an essentialist
model: a return to the earth, reuniting woman and
nature. In this sense,Mendieta's performancesbecame
neccessary rituals of renewal. In I977, in a letter to a
friend,shewrote, "Ihavebeen placing thishieroglyph
of myself in (different) kinds of settings as an exorcism
in an effort to return to the center of life. "
Charles Merewether