Untitled (Silueta series) 1977 - 1978

Curator: I find myself immediately drawn to the earthy textures of Ana Mendieta's "Untitled (Silueta series)," created between 1977 and 1978. There's a rawness and directness here, don't you think? Editor: Absolutely, there's a visceral quality to it. At first glance, the monochromatic photograph seems almost violent—an obscured, feminine form pressed into the earth, half-buried. The photograph suggests a struggle, a loss. I think of forced displacement. Curator: Yes, but note how the Silueta series intertwines the female body with organic materials found onsite. Mendieta carefully constructed ephemeral forms directly in the landscape—here, it appears she may have excavated the earth. Then, she documented the scene with photography. I think Mendieta blurs the line between performance and land art, creating works that exist primarily through photographic record. What do you see in this image? What exactly do we see her working with? Editor: What is foregrounded to me is this fraught relationship between woman and the natural world—one marked by potential violence, definitely, but also cyclical regeneration. Considering Mendieta's biography as a Cuban exile in the US, her artistic practice engages directly with exile, otherness, and gendered experiences of trauma through the symbolism of the earth as witness, refuge, and a primal return. It allows us to consider the politics of place-making. Curator: Precisely. This piece begs us to think about the labour involved in site-specific installation, the temporary nature of the sculpture. Her artistic project interrogates the conditions of creating in the moment, while reflecting on artistic output beyond conventional studios, materials and methods. And, because of the photography, Mendieta wrestles with her role as both participant and witness to her land art production. Editor: Absolutely. Mendieta's strategic use of the land provides her artistic framework; her physical engagement with earth pushes boundaries while she simultaneously interrogates the representation and construction of both personal and cultural narratives through performance, photography and installation. She powerfully creates a visceral, tangible language through the ephemeral artwork, highlighting the complexities of identity in diaspora. Curator: Mendieta invites viewers to reckon with the cyclical nature of both making and unmaking, creation and destruction; ultimately forcing one to consider art making outside established institutions or commodification. Editor: Looking at this Silueta work offers us a compelling example of how art can speak to trauma while also inviting us to reflect critically on questions of place and identity, as well as our complex entanglements within the earth.