James Benning's irrigated (after the rain) field shot, "El Valley Centro" lends itself to his described long shot distinction.. The framing of that field, illustrated in one point perspective, moves the viewers eye directly to the diminishing point. The beauty and composition of this particular shot creates an ethereal experience of floating toward infinity.
Marian Vieux
Marian, thanks for pointing this out. I will be shown to look for it.
ReplyDeleteResearch: Ana Mendieta
ReplyDeleteAna Mendieta, performance artist, sculptor, photographer, and filmmaker, evolves a complex
body of work from the University of Iowa in the 1079s. As an artist from the Post Modernist
movement, seemingly fragmented in time, Mendieta’s performances with blood alluding to violent encounters and violent human sexuality seem twisted with an obsessive and unnecessary use of violence and degradation.
Death of a Chicken, 1972, indulging in a murderous act with ax and chicken; Documentation of People Looking at Blood, Moffitt, 1972 (in Iowa City); and Documentation of a brutal Rape Scene, 1973. These references and images were horrific underscoring for her the importance of documenting with photographs or film. Her intent was to was to incite reaction and conversation about violence which she believed was purposefully repressed in our society.
A prolific artist, this body of work evolved as if it were on an evolutionary timeline. She created sculptural situations, delineating time with wood, and elemental purifying fire; returning her body to earth-- the pure beauty of layered mud, Mendieta merges into Ancestral Homeland.
Compressing knowledge usually gained from a span of a lifetime into thirteen years of prolific production, she writes, “I have been carrying on a dialogue between the landscape and the female body. Having been torn from my homeland (Cuba) during my adolescence, I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast out from the womb (Nature) . . . My art is the way I reestablish the bonds that unite me to the Universe.”
This body of work signifies the importance of the audience to inquire without judgment and understanding will ensue.
Marian Vieux