Ana Mendieta
Mendieta was a Cuban-American performance artist best known for her "earth-body" artwork. This type of art is often hard to represent in a gallery but this exhibition did it well using photographs of her work, reconstructions and videos made at the time. The work often consisted of her making a sculpture in nature often using her own body which gradually breaksup.
I loved the recreation of her 1978 work where she transported a life-sized forest into an exhibition space and a lot of the work gave a sense of walking by the sea or through trees. In contrast to this large work I also liked he drawings on leaves.
It is only when Googling since that I realise the controversy over her death and I am pleased the show just let her work speak for itself without dwelling on that and the effect it has had on feminist art.
Currently, as I type, Tate Modern have three shows by female artists, Mendieta, Frida Kahol and Tracey Emin, and I like the way they subtly build in parallels between their work.
Closes 17 January 2027
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