“My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source. Through my earth/ body sculptures, I become one with the earth” Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta, Bird Run 1974. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. DACS 2026. Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Ana Mendieta becomes one with the earth by smearing blood, feathers, flowers and dirt onto her body until its edges dissolve into the landscape, leaving her both present and absent, unsettling and physical. Elsewhere, Mendieta’s body disappears completely into the landscape, leaving only an imprint carved into the earth.
Tate’s retrospective of Ana Mendieta takes the visitor through the different spaces the Cuban-born artist worked within: caves and groves with mystical traces of lost civilisations, and archaeological and symbolic sites where Mendieta layers the past with the present. Working across film, photography, sculpture and drawing, Mendieta’s work offers a fresh, feminist approach to land art, more than fifty years after its creation.
Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Guanaroca [First Woman]) 1981,1994. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by DACS
In Tree of Life, Mendieta’s body, face and hair are coated in thick mud and grass, her feet touching and her arms raised above her head like the branches of a tree. This form is imprinted in gunpowder and set alight on the banks of the Iowa River, in the sand of a desolate beach and among woodland groves in Mendieta’s Silueta Series.
This series, comprising over 200 works, forms a large part of the exhibition. The traces of Mendieta’s body are both physical and ephemeral, as if the imprint has been there for centuries, yet could also be washed away by the sea or blown away on the wind. The works survive primarily through photographic documentation; their physical imprint on the earth disappears almost as soon as it is created.
Ana Mendieta, Untitled Silueta Series, 1976. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by DACS
In the first work of the Silueta Series, Mendieta lies within an ancient open tomb in Yagul, Oaxaca, her naked body covered in delicate white flowers. The jutting rocks of the archaeological site close in around her, contrasting with the softness of the flowers wedged between her feet, thighs and arms like great bunches of baby’s-breath.
I’m reminded of the image of Agnes in Chloé Zhao’s film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, lying on the forest floor as the roots of an ancient tree envelop her, an image that echoes Mendieta’s own ghostly imprints. The tree, Agnes’ curled body and red dress evoke images of the womb, Mother Nature and an ancient, mythological connection to the earth that Mendieta also explores through her imprints. Both women possess a pagan, spiritual connection to the earth, grounded by an unseen energy.
Ana Mendieta, Untitled 1973 © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. DACS 2026. Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Speaking on her practice, Mendieta said, “My art is grounded in the belief of one universal energy which runs through everything: from insect to man, from man to spectre, from spectre to plant, from plant to galaxy. My works are the irrigation veins of this universal fluid.”
Alongside Mendieta’s photography are a series of videos and installations. In the final video, Bird Run, a haunting white figure runs towards the camera through gently breaking grey waves, a crest of green on the horizon. A triangle of pubic hair stands in stark contrast to the feathers covering the figure’s entire body and face. The figure disappears from the frame, leaving the viewer with a lasting impression of Mendieta’s work and her enduring impact on the art world.
by Sadie Pitcher
Ana Mendieta is at Tate Modern, London, from 15 July 2026 to 17 January 2027