What Keeps

by Elizabeth Miller

This project is part of Becoming Visible, Spring 2025 at The New School, New York City.

Two years ago, I came across the work of Ana Mendieta, and I was immediately captivated by a single image I found online. That moment sparked a deep curiosity, and I soon found myself immersed in her world. I began exploring her art, uncovering her story, and feeling increasingly connected to both. As I’ve studied her work more closely, each piece continues to resonate with me on a deeper level. Mendieta, a Cuban-born multidisciplinary artist, explored themes of identity, exile, and the human connection to nature. Forced to leave Cuba at the age of 12 through Operation Pedro Pan during the Cuban Revolution, her experience of displacement became central to her artistic practice. In works like her iconic Silueta series, she merged the body with the earth to create art that served as a sanctuary. It acted as an intimate response to loss, trauma, and as a reconnection to her roots.

 

When I saw Becoming Visible listed in the New School course catalog, Ana Mendieta was the first person who came to mind. I immediately felt compelled to tell her story and share how deeply her work has influenced my own. As a fashion designer and student at Parsons School of Design, research is a fundamental part of our creative process, laying the foundation before any garment is made. My thesis project began with an exploration of ecofeminist theory and textile art, focusing on the work of several feminist artists, one of them being, Ana Mendieta. As an artist, I’m deeply drawn to raw textures, the presence of the natural world, expressive silhouettes, and the nuanced layers of femininity.

 

 

From this research I formed an understanding of the importance of being a person, and a woman, primarily in and of the natural world. My womenswear collection represents the reclamation of my inner world.  Crafted from raw natural materials and collected antique laces, each garment is thoughtfully grown in isolation, symbolizing a journey through introspection. By embracing the beauty of experimental processes and my connection to the nonhuman world through the collection’s materiality, I am able to craft a space where I am wholly safe.

 

 

For my creative project I knew I wanted to showcase my thesis collection in a way I thought Ana might document her work. Mendieta produced 104 moving image works over the course of her career. Film, particularly the Super 8 format, was essential to Ana Mendieta’s practice as it allowed her to document her ephemeral, site-specific works. Her silent, short films captured the immediacy and intimacy of her performances, many of which were temporary and would have otherwise gone undocumented. I had never used a Super 8 film camera before, but I worked with my friend and photographer to rent a Super 8 camera and to experiment documenting my collection on film. I created a short, silent film inspired by Ana Mendieta’s Super 8 works, particularly her use of nature, simple movements, and the body to explore identity and presence. Filmed outdoors and featuring two women moving gently through a landscape shared with llamas, the piece reflects Mendieta’s quiet, meditative style. Like her Silueta series, my film emphasizes the relationship between body and environment, using stillness, softness, and silence.

 

Schema

Ana Mendieta

Personal Information

 

Name(s): Ana Mendieta

Birth: November 18, 1948, Havana, Cuba

Death: September 8, 1985, Greenwich Village, New York (age 36 years)

Religion: Raised in a devout Catholic family and later placed in a Catholic orphanage in Iowa, Ana Mendieta was deeply shaped by Catholicism in her early life. Her artistic practice reflects this foundation, drawing heavily on religious iconography and ritual. However, as her work evolved, she began to reconnect with the indigenous and Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions of her homeland, particularly Santería, a religion blending West African Yoruba beliefs with Catholicism. This fusion of faiths resonated with Mendieta, who incorporated its symbols, rituals, and materials such as: blood, water, and natural elements into
her art to evoke a spiritual presence and ancestral connection.

Education: Mendieta attended college at the University of Iowa where she received a BA in art in 1969, an MA in painting in 1972, and an MFA in intermedia, the University of Iowa’s progressive experimental multimedia program in 1977.

Family:
Ignacio Alberto Mendieta de Lizáur, Father
Raquel Oti de Rojas, Mother
Raquelin Mendieta, Sister
Raquel Cecilia Mendieta, Niece/Goddaughter

Early Life: Ana Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba in 1948. She was raised in a sheltered upper-class family and attended a Catholic all-girls private school. After the Cuban revolution in 1961, Ana and her sister fled Castro’s regime and immigrated to the United States. They were part of a covert government program, dubbed Operation Pedro Pan, that brought unaccompanied Cuban
children to the U.S. The sisters were able to stay together due to a power of attorney signed by their parents. Upon their arrival they stayed in established refugee camps before being sent to a Catholic orphanage in Iowa. Ana moved between orphanages and foster homes in Iowa, separated from her homeland and her family, until she was reunited with her mother in 1966.

Marriage: Ana Mendieta married minimalist sculptor Carl Andre in New York in January of 1985.

Timeline:

  • Havana, Cuba, 1948- Ana Mendieta born.
  • Cuba, 1959- Cuban Revolution ends, Fidel Castro comes to power.
  • Miami, 1961- U.S. covert Operation Pedro Pan brings Ana and her sister to the United States where they stay together in a refugee camp.
  • Iowa, 1961- The sisters are transferred to an orphanage in Iowa.
  • Iowa, 1966- Ana’s mother arrives in Iowa and reunites with Ana and her sister.
  • Iowa 1969- Ana receives her Bachelor of Arts degree in art from University of Iowa, and begins her graduate studies.
  • Mexico 1971- Mendieta first visits Mexico in 1971, where she becomes deeply inspired by pre-Hispanic rituals and imagery. She describes the experience as “going back to the source.” During this time, she begins her iconic Siluetas series (1973–1980), embedding female forms into natural landscapes.
  • Iowa 1972- Ana receives her Master of Arts in painting from University of Iowa.
  • Iowa 1977- Ana receives her Master of Fine Arts in intermedia from University of Iowa.
  • New York 1978- Ana moves to New York and joins the art community, becoming a part of New York’s Artists in Residence (A.I.R. Gallery), the first gallery in the U.S. dedicated to women artists. Mendieta grows critical of American feminism, seeing that it is largely a white, middle-class movement.
  • New York, 1979- Ana presents a solo exhibition of her photographs at A.I.R. Gallery in New York, during which she meets Carl Andre, who she will later marry.
  • Cuba, 1980- Ana returns to Cuba for the first time in 18 years. She is also awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
  • Rome, 1983- Mendieta wins the Prix de Rome and takes part in a residency at the American Academy in Rome. She uses this time to focus on studio-based sculpture. This marks a shift in her work toward more permanent forms like drawings, prints, and sculptures, while still using natural materials and themes from earlier projects. She will travel between Rome and New York until her death.
  • New York, 1985- Ana Mendieta marries minimalist artist Carl Andre. Just eight months after they are married, on September 8, 1985, Ana dies from a fall from the window of their 34th-floor apartment in Greenwich Village under suspicious circumstances. She was only 36 years old.

 

Significance

 

Reputation: Ana Mendieta earned a powerful reputation as an emotive and boundary-defying artist whose work merged performance, sculpture, and photography to explore raw and often unsettling themes such as gender, identity, violence, and the human connection to nature. Best known for her “earth-body” artworks, Mendieta used her own body as a medium, blending it with natural elements. Her ephemeral performances, often documented in film or photography, addressed trauma and transformation while challenging cultural and gender norms. Personally, she was known for her energetic and passionate presence, approaching her work with seriousness and intensity. Though she rejected being confined by a single artistic movement, Mendieta is now widely celebrated as a visionary feminist and earth-body artist.

Works/Agency:

Some notable works

  • Rape Scene (1973 Moffit Street, Iowa City, Iowa)
  • Silueta Series (1973–1985)
  • Photo etchings of the Rupestrian Sculptures (1981)
  • Body Tracks (1982)
  • Film works (over 100 experimental films) (1971–1980)

Silueta Series

Ana Mendieta's "Silueta'' series, created from 1973 to 1980, is an intimate exploration of the connection between her body and nature through earth-body performances. The films explore themes of history, memory, culture, time and ritual, expressed by placing her body on the land. She lays directly on the earth, imprinting silhouettes that are enhanced with natural materials that represent her absence from her homeland.

“With her Siluetas Mendieta conflated land with home. Such a personal mark on the land represented a mythic whole in Mendieta's attempt to reconstitute ties to her home and assuage the pain of exile. ‘[I was] trying to find a place on the earth and trying to define myself,’ she explained. When she stepped away from the work, the feeling of displacement reasserted itself.” (Cabañas, 1991, 14)

As seen throughout her Silueta series, her body and her relationship to land become both the subject and object within each piece. Ana Mendieta was deeply influenced by her surroundings. The environments that she crafted out of the earth and other natural materials were enacted as rituals to heal parts of her pain and advocate for change. Though many of these works were lost to erosion and changing uses of the land, they live on through Mendieta's films and
photographs, representing her search for a universal energy that connects all living things.

Solo Exhibitions

  • A.I.R. Gallery, New York (1979)- Mendieta presented her first solo exhibition of photographs
  • Dialectics of Isolation, A.I.R. Gallery, New York (1981)-Curated by Mendieta, this exhibition focused on Third World (so-called at the time) women artists in the U.S. and included her own work.
  • The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1987)- This was her first major survey exhibition posthumously, acknowledging her influence on contemporary art.
  • Ana Mendieta, Art Institute of Chicago (2011)-A significant retrospective exploring Mendieta’s legacy across media including performance, sculpture, and photography.
  • Ana Mendieta in Context: Public and Private Work, De La Cruz Collection, Miami (2012)-This show placed Mendieta’s practice in dialogue with contemporary and historical contexts.
  • Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance (2004–2005)-Organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, Des Moines Art Center, and Pérez Art Museum Miami; a landmark retrospective that established her as a key figure in postwar art
  • Ana Mendieta / Covered in Time and History, Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden (2017)-Focused on her time-based works, especially her film and video art, emphasizing her role in multimedia
  • La Tierra Habla (The Earth Speaks), Galerie Lelong, New York (2019)-Examined her deep connection with nature and her use of the earth as both medium and subject.
  • Ana Mendieta: Source, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy
    (2019–2020)-Explored themes of origin, belonging, and ritual in Mendieta’s work.
  • Ana Mendieta: Blood Inside Outside, Baltimore Museum of Art (2020)-Focused on her visceral use of blood in art to challenge violence, gender, and identity politics.
  • Ana Mendieta: Elemental, City Art Space, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (2022–2023)-A curated selection of her elemental works exploring the four classical elements—earth, air, fire, and water.
  • En Búsqueda del Origen, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MUSAC), León, Spain (2024)-A major exhibition contextualizing Mendieta’s search for cultural and spiritual origins.

 

Controversy

 

Ana Mendieta’s death on September 8, 1985, remains enveloped in controversy.

Officially, she died from a fall from the 34th-floor apartment she shared with her husband, artist Carl Andre. Andre was the one to call 911 from their apartment in Greenwich Village, claiming that they had fought and that Mendieta "went out the window.” His statement raised suspicions that grew as his story continued to change over time. He was charged and indicted for 2nd degree
murder three times by a grand jury before his case went to trial, with the first two indictments dismissed due to inadmissible evidence. His last indictment by a grand jury was in 1987, and his case went to trial in 1988. His trial was heard without a jury, and Andre was acquitted by the judge.

Carl Andre used powerful lawyers in his defense and exploited his privilege as a wealthy, prominent white male artist. He remained silent about his wife’s death for the rest of his life, never speaking on the matter. His verdict provoked a lot of debate and became one of the most talked-about scandals at the time within the art world. While many artists that were his friends defended him, Mendieta's family and her supporters believe he was responsible for her death.

The trial showcased strong supporting evidence as to what could have happened that night. It is known that a heated argument between Ana Mendieta and Carl Andre took place that night. They had been drinking, and it was well-known that when Carl drank, his behavior often became aggressive. Neighbors reported hearing violent fighting and a cry of "no". Despite Ana’s known fear of heights, Andre claimed that she had committed suicide. This was the narrative that led to his acquittal in 1988 by cause of "reasonable doubt." Andre’s defense team twisted Ana's deeply personal artwork to undermine her mental state, suggesting that her work indicated she was prone to suicide. Andre faced little consequence in his career even with lingering suspicion that he murdered his wife. Ana’s death reflects many untold stories of marginalized women, where justice is elusive, and their lives are overlooked.

 

Legacy and Influence

 

The Where Is Ana Mendieta? movement came to be in response to Carl Andre’s acquittal, which sparked fierce anger in the feminist art community. The movement advocates for greater inclusion of women and marginalized artists in art institutions. One of the first protests happened in 1992 outside the Guggenheim Museum in New York. They featured an all-white exhibition that included Andre’s work. Another notable protest took place on June 19, 2016, during the opening of a new wing at Tate Modern in London. The Tate excluded Mendieta's work and continued the inclusion of Andre’s. Additional protests have been held at Andre’s exhibitions, with the protesters enacting performances inspired by Mendieta serving as a form of disruption and call to action. Today, the movement persists online, continuing to honor Mendieta's legacy and advocate for better representation of women and people of color in the art world.

Ana Mendieta’s work reflects her personal history, particularly the trauma of being separated from her homeland during the Cuban Revolution and the ongoing pain of exile. Despite her tragic death in 1985, Mendieta’s impact has only grown since, with her art gaining recognition through documentaries like Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra, and with her family actively working to preserve her legacy and ensure her work is not overshadowed by her death. Over the years, Mendieta received significant honors, such as the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cintas Foundation. In 2010, Richard Move’s Where is Ana Mendieta? a symposium that further cemented her importance, and in 2018, The New York Times acknowledged her lasting impact with a tribute to her ‘unapologetically feminist and raw art”. Her work can be seen in major museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York as well as the Tate in London.

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Bio

Elizabeth Miller is a New York–based fashion designer and Parsons graduate. Working with natural textiles, her designs are quiet records of their making, rooted in personal narrative and material storytelling. She envisions fashion as a space of connection, one that links the wearer not only to the garment, but to the plants, animals, and hands that have shaped each piece and given life to its fabric.

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