1983-1984

Untitled (Sandwoman Series)

American (born Cuba), 1948 - 1985

This sculpture by Ana Mendieta exemplifies her direct and profound engagement with the body and nature. Evidently charged with primitivist overtones and references to archaic ideas of femininity, the work relates to earlier pieces in which she inscribed the shape of her own body onto the natural landscape using blood, earth, plants, fire, and water, and documented the process with photographs and films. Part of the Sandwoman series Mendieta made while living in Rome, this work is made of sand she collected from historically and personally meaningful locations. The form echoes the human scale and the shape of her outdoor sculptures. The horizontal orientation of the piece (which was originally exhibited on the floor) subverts the monumentality of vertical sculpture.