Project 1: Process
ARTIST RESEARCH

Ana Mendieta was born on November 18, 1948 in Cuba. She is an artist that uses a variety of non-traditional materials and techniques to create art. Films, paintings, sculptures, and drawings were the types of art Mendieta produced during her lifetime. She died at a very young age and it was until after her death that her art began to be appreciated. Mendieta went through different phases in which she would experiment new things. She made art pieces that were influenced by feminism, the earth and traditions. “She was especially intrigued by challenging the established materials of art - canvas, paint, paper, etc - and instead explored a great range of unused and disregarded materials, such as the human body.” (H2G2) Mendieta used her body to create art and it was also the artwork itself. Some of her work was made using cement, gun powder and a branding iron to make a mark that looked like a hand on some sort of surface. She made body sculptures of herself from natural materials such as mud, grass and sand. The combination of the body form and the natural materials represented a connection between her and the earth. After her phase that focused on the earth, she moved onto a new period that was influenced by feminism. “Mendieta's art was inflected by personal identity and femininity, and distinguished by the singular hybrid form she created.” (Whitney Museum) Mendieta made multiple sculptures and paintings that showed the woman’s body. Some of the sculptures did not go into a lot of detail; they would just show the contours of the body. “In some of her siluetas, the outline of her wide-hipped woman's body gets so reduced, it's just a kind of narrow almond shape: It's woman as vagina, the thing that marks her off most clearly from the men who've ruled in art until now.” (Washington Post) Mendieta would also temporarily alter her upper body with make up or hair from other people. Her purpose behind this was to see how it would change her personal appearance.

Mendieta’s childhood played an important role for her artistic career. It was the time when she started appreciating nature and connecting herself with the earth and art. Her Silueta period was the period in which she used a lot of process art to make. “The production of the Silueta series, in which she imprints of her own body merged in the landscape.” (H2G2) Mendieta would sculpt silhouettes of a woman’s body from the earth using natural materials. She made a sculpture out of mud and it was obvious that the earth would make it disappear over time. The water could slowly remove pieces or the sculpture could have dried up and started falling apart. Mendieta’s art pieces that were related to earth materials would have some connection with her feminism work. Some of the artwork was related to fertility by having paintings that looked like a vagina and the female body form. It could have been connected with the sculpture of her body in grass to represent the earth’s fertility.
Mendieta’s work and techniques were very similar to those of Janine Antoni. Even though Antoni began working after Mendieta died, they both shared similar ideas. “Antoni "evolved an approach to sculpture rooted in performance and focused on the efficacy of her physical mark and its relationship to the history of art and contemporary culture. In this artist's talk, Antoni discusses Mendieta's example against her own distinct practice." (Whitney Museum) The sculptures of both artists were process based because the sculptures would eventually disappear over time. The appreciation or exploration of their own body was a major influence for both of them. The art they made would include a replica of their head or entire body made from a non-traditional material.

Sources:
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa459.htm
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A1105453
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35164-2004Oct15.html
http://www.nytimes.com/keyword/ana-mendieta

Images:

http://rii-it.blogspot.com/2011/05/ana-mendieta.html

Janine Antoni has turned daily activities into a form of art. She was born on January 19, 1964, in Freeport, Bahamas. She has worked using similar processes such as using daily activities as inspiration throughout her entire career. Antoni uses a combination of sculpture and performance art to make her art. She uses her body functions such as sleeping, biting, licking and washing to give her art pieces their form. Antoni’s artwork has a visible form that is self-controlled and most of them are objective. Janine Antoni’s choice of material will depend on the purpose of her sculpture. She has used lard, chocolate, ice, soap and rawhides for some her pieces. "I work differently from a lot of conceptual artists who begin their process with an idea: I begin with the idea of an experience I want to give myself. The meaning reveals itself to me through the experience, through the process." (Lacanian Ink) Her use of process art may be done subconsciously because she first thinks of an experience and then begins to work. The meaning of her artwork will come as she is working. Antoni’s “Lick and Lather” is an example of how she finds out about the meaning as she is working on an art piece. She was able to feel differently about herself when working on licking and bathing the sculptures. Antoni uses a lot of process oriented work from the beginning of an art piece all the way through the end.
Antoni’s sculpture “Lick and Lather” is a combination of sculpture and performance art. She used chocolate and soap to make two individual sculptures of her head and shoulders. A mold of her was made from a product called alginate. She filled one mold with melted chocolate and another with soap. Once the sculptures were finished and dried she began to work on them in different ways. The chocolate or “Lick” part of the sculpture was licked and giving the sculpture it’s new form. For the “Lather” or the soap sculpture she would get in a tub and began to wash it. The performance aspect of the art piece allowed Antoni to see herself from another point of view. “I was thinking about how one describes the self and feeling a little uncomfortable with my outer surface as the description of myself. And this piece very much is about trying to be on the outside of myself and have a relationship with my image.” (Art21) Janine Antoni was in control of shaping the sculpture and the more amount of time she spent with each one would change the sculpture’s shape drastically.

“Touch” was an interesting piece that Antoni created. It was a performance piece that made it look like she was walking on the horizon. It is meaningful piece for Antoni because of the location and the reasons behind making “Touch.” The location was in the Bahamas which is where she grew up in. This piece is different from her other work because it is mostly focused in performance than sculpture. The process of her creating it was the same because she had no idea what to do, with the exception of making something related to her culture or background.
Antoni shares a similar style to Ana Mendieta by using materials that are not traditional and using her body as tools. In a few art pieces of both artists, it can be noticed that they used daily activities to create art “It was Ana who decided to experiment with the human body as a tool for creative expression, where it was not only the objective of the work but also the means of execution itself.” (H2G2) Antoni’s and Mendieta’s use of non-traditional materials and tools for art were useful for the process based art. Antoni’s difference in her work from Mendieta was the inspiration. Mendieta used events in the world and different aspects of her Cuban culture. Antoni began to work as an artist after Medieta had completed her artistic career which could mean that Mendieta was an inspiration. Both artists made the process art movement completely different from others

Sources:
http://www.art21.org/artists/janine-antoni
http://www.art21.org/texts/janine-antoni/interview-janine-antoni-lick-and-lather
http://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/janine-antoni/
http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/features/janine-antoni/
http://www.lacan.com/lacinkXXIX9.htm

Images:

http://dlynx.rhodes.edu/jspui/handle/10267/4788