M+，香港 © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York Licensed by the Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo: M+, Hong Kong
NARRATOR:
This work, titled Silueta Sangrienta (Bloody Silhouette), is a performance video by Ana Mendieta created in 1975. It is a silent Super 8 film in colour transferred to high-definition digital. It has a duration of one minute and fifty-one seconds.
The video is set on a riverbank. The artist lies naked in the mud, her fair-skinned body making a deep impression. This indent is then filled with a red, blood-like liquid.
The video begins with a shot of the nude artist lying face-up in the mud. Her eyes are closed, feet together, and elbows bent. Her palms face upward on either side of her head. The film then cuts to the same scene, framed in the same way, but without the artist, leaving only her silhouette in the mud. After another cut, the silhouette is filled with a red liquid that evokes blood. Finally, in the last cut, the artist reappears, this time lying face down, the liquid pooling around her.
The continuity of these shots is subtly enhanced by the shimmering sunlight on the artist’s body and the mud. This poetic detail stands in stark contrast to the lifeless body and the blood-like liquid.