Amategram Series - The Vivification of the Flesh
Ana Mendieta American, born Cuba
This series of Amategrams (see also MMA 1983.502.2 and 1983.502.3)—totemic forms painted onto amate, paper made from bark by indigenous Otomi craftspeople in Mexico—exemplifies Mendieta’s persistent engagement with the female body and the landscape. The abstract shapes rendered in heavy black lines evoke the presence of a female life force, which Mendieta viewed as omnipresent in the natural world, a continuation of her 1970s "earth body" performances and sculptures. The woody materiality of the amate grounds Mendieta’s symbolic mark making in process, suggesting an affiliation with rituals and offerings, as well as the alchemical.
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