The Silueta Series

Ana Mendieta

‘My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source’, said Mendieta, ‘Through my earth/body sculptures, I become one with the earth’. Yet it is hard to look at these works of unity and not see harbingers of death. Here, Mendieta’s body is made of algae on the shore of an anonymous marsh. Reminiscent of Ophelia drowning, the silhouette could just as easily be mistaken as a natural form as it could a body washed ashore. Mendieta created her silhouettes from water, plants, fire, rock and the natural world around her. In leaving her imprint, she has to engage in the abstract imagery of violence. She becomes a spirit, a whisper of a body no longer there.She embodies nature by mimicking death.

Saturday 24th October

The Moon, on its swift journey around the Earth, comes into conjunction with Neptune and then Saturn, while the Sun forms a conjunction with Venus. Read symbolically, these meetings bring together imagination, the patience to give an idea form, and an appreciation of beauty and creativity. The watery quality of the day invites us to find a little more flow, perhaps through a creative project or something absorbing in which we can lose ourselves for a while. Painting, writing, music or thoughtful work in the garden can give our attention somewhere to settle. Allow yourself to begin without needing to know exactly where the work will lead, leaving space for an unexpected idea to take shape.