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64 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 65
Ana Mendieta
/ United States 1948–85
/ ‘Esculturas Rupestres’ (Rupestrian sculpture) portfolio 1982, printed 1993
/
Untitled [Guanaroca (First Woman)]
/ 13.2 x 9.2cm /
Photo‑etching on chine collé on Arches Cover paper, ed. 9/20 / Acc. 1996.240.1–10 / Purchased 1996 with a special allocation from the Queensland Government. Celebrating the
Queensland Art Gallery’s Centenary 1895–1995 / © The estate of Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendi eta
‘Esculturas Rupestres’ (Rupestrian sculpture) portfolio 1982, printed 1993
Ana Mendieta explores the possibility of immersion into a
landscape in two series: ‘Silueta’ (‘Silhouette’) 1973–80
and ‘Esculturas Rupestres’ (‘Rupestrian sculpture’) 1981.
Mendieta lived in exile in the United States, having fled Cuba
with her sister at the age of 12 as part of Operation Peter Pan,
but never felt a sense of belonging in her new country. In ‘Silueta’,
she repeatedly impressed, carved and moulded herself into and
onto the North American landscape, as a way of overcoming her
sense of displacement. In ‘Esculturas Rupestres’, Mendieta takes
the earlier series to its source by carving and painting a series of
life-sized figures onto the rock cliffs of the Escaleras de Jaruco
(Jaruco State Park) near Havana, Cuba, during the summer of
1981. This time, however, she chose not to use her own body,
instead depicting the goddesses of the Taíno, the indigenous
peoples of the Antilles, making reference to Cuba’s colonial
history. In these series, Mendieta intimately ties her sense of
identity to the landscape, presenting an expansive understanding
of the self.