Snapshot: Bury me in spring
Omnipresent female force!
Snapshots are short, weekly posts (usually on a Wednesday, life permitting) about a photo/grapher. They are free to read because art should be enjoyed by all!
“My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source. Through my earth/body sculptures, I become one with the earth”.
Ana Medieta was consumed by the earth. Flowers, moss and tree branches were her tools and the soil her canvas. On Monday, Tate Modern announced a major exhibition of the artist’s work for 2026. The timing couldn’t have been better: spring, nature’s tour de force, is here.
Mendieta (1945-1985) is best known for her Silueta Series, exploring the presence and absence of the female body by creating sculptures out of natural landscapes and her own body, and recording them as photographs and films. The art historian Susan Best described the works as a 'feminist space [of] dwelling', where the 'female body [is] at once present in outline and yet absent in actuality’.
A Cuban exile, Mendieta left much of her family behind when she came to the United States in 1961. The move left her feeling untethered and traumatised, and impacted her art enormously. In 1973, in a bid to quell homesickness, she began researching Afro-Cuban rituals, the pantheistic Santeria religion and the indigenous Taíno practices of her homeland. The research introduced her to contemporary practices such as earthworks and body art, through which she hoped to reconnect with three things: her heritage, her femininity (or an ‘omnipresent female force’ as she describes it) and the land beneath her feet.
In four weeks and one day, it will have been a year since I lost my friend. The urge to absent myself and re-emerge only after the anniversary has passed is overwhelming. Instead, I’m trying to do the opposite: engage energetically and authentically with the world around me.
Mendieta’s works are ephemeral by nature. They were subsumed by the earth or eroded by the air, remaining only in photograph form: just as the female body is both present and absent, Mendieta’s works occupy the same liminal space.
Nothing lasts forever: with spring, comes a spirit of renewal. The sun is shining, the snowdrops are peeking through, the cherry blossoms have arrived, and the dawn chorus is underway.
