Ana Mendieta

Cuban-born Ana Mendieta produced work in the seventies in which she used her own body as a medium. she used the female body as a vehicle for personal and social expression and wanted to  challenge the male traditional roles. thats why in some pictures of her she actually has a beard or mustasche.
Alot of her work is within or part of nature. whether its her being part of a tree or river. all her work is like a performance piece since her body is the artwork within the scenery its in which is another art medium. she utilizies the whole area in which she stands or lays in; she holds your eyes to the picture tryishe stated that she wanted to use the her body and get the point across in her work of a "dialog between the landscape and the female body returning to the maternal source." i think what she meant was that the femal body was the most important being and that it is the source of life. i can kinda understand since women do give birth.
she is considered to be a earth-body artist. her fame continued to grow until her death in 1985. i personally like her art, although somewhat disturbing at times, catches your attention and makes you take a sencond glance to interpret.



Her most famous piece "Tree of Life"



 

Ana naked fixing a skeleton



 







it says: "there is a devil inside of me.