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Expanding Concepts of Sculpture

Sculpture and Performance in Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series

Gill Perry, Sculpture and Performance in Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series  Studies of Mendieta's work have frequently interpreted her earth/body art as both instilled with primitivist fantasies of a feminine primordial power, and an obsessive response to trauma and loss. In this talk, Gill Perry questions the relative importance of some of these claims, arguing that Mendieta's work also directly addresses some compelling sculptural and material problems encountered by artists forging a difficult relationship between emerging theories of performance and earth art in the 1970s and 80s. In particular she considers the problem of how earthy, organic material which is transformed, or disappears, can qualify for an expanded concept of 'sculpture'.Further ReadingG.Perry 'The expanding field: Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series' in J. Gaiger, ed, Frameworks for Modern Art, Yale UP/OU, 2004.J.Blocker, Where is Ana Mendieta, Duke University Press, 1999.