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M+, Hong Kong, © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
On View
Mediatheque
Ana Mendieta 安娜．曼迪耶塔
Volcán (Volcano) 火山
1979
Ana Mendieta’s Volcán (Volcano) captures a raised mound of earth set against a grassy riverbank. A white silhouette in the shape of a female body lies atop of the form. The same shot then cuts to a frame where the base of the white figure spontaneously starts smoking. It then quickly sets aflame. As it combusts, a deep cavity is revealed, even as it is cloaked in growing flames and smoke, evoking a volcanic eruption. Finally, the entire body is engulfed so that only ashes remain in the negative space, human remains. Mendieta short the work in 1975 at Old Man’s Creek in Sharon Center, Iowa, near where the artist was living at the time.
Volcán is one of the videos comprising Mendiata’s Silueta series. Completed between 1973 and 1981 in Iowa, Cuba, and Mexico, each silent video piece was shot with either an 8-mm or 16-mm camera, lasting only as long as one reel of film or shorter. Combining conceptual ideas that would come to define body, performance, and Land Art of the era, Mendieta’s Silueta works document the presence of female forms in various landscapes, which she moulded by pressing her body into materials including mud, sand, grass, snow, gunpowder, ice, wood, cloth, and ashes. The work is indicative of motifs that run throughout Mendieta’s practice, particularly the presence of violence enacted upon absent female bodies.
Volcán is one of the videos comprising Mendiata’s Silueta series. Completed between 1973 and 1981 in Iowa, Cuba, and Mexico, each silent video piece was shot with either an 8-mm or 16-mm camera, lasting only as long as one reel of film or shorter. Combining conceptual ideas that would come to define body, performance, and Land Art of the era, Mendieta’s Silueta works document the presence of female forms in various landscapes, which she moulded by pressing her body into materials including mud, sand, grass, snow, gunpowder, ice, wood, cloth, and ashes. The work is indicative of motifs that run throughout Mendieta’s practice, particularly the presence of violence enacted upon absent female bodies.
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