Arbol de la Vida (from the Silueta Series)

Ana Mendieta was exiled at the age of 12 to the United States after the Cuban Revolution. Her artwork has come to reflect this painful experience of being separated from her family and her homeland. These images are from her series Silueta (or Silhouette), which combined various artistic practices that were happening in the 1960s and 1970s: performance, earthwork, and feminist art. Essentially, Mendieta performed before the camera, inscribing her body (or the memory of its form) into the landscape-whether in grass, mud, stone, or with fireworks in the air. "The making of my silueta in nature keeps (make) the transition between my homeland and my new home. It is a way of reclaiming my roots and becoming one with nature. Although the culture in which I live is part of me, my roots and cultural identity are a result of my Cuban heritage." -Ana Mendieta