In five pages this paper examines how these female artists employed body art as a way of reinforcing cultural identity. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
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it pertains to the life and loves of Frida Kahlo and Ana Mendieta what can be assumed about cultural identity and the use of the body speaks for itself in
their legacy of a large number of their surrealistic paintings and sculptures. The funny thing about exile, one could say, is that after awhile, expatriation does not seem to be
such a bad thing and soon the ideas, sounds and tastes of ones homeland begins to fade into a memory. Perhaps in an effort that this was not to be
so, Ana Mendieta made the attempt to rediscover her cultural heritage by making annual pilgrimages back to Cuba. Fleeing Cuba during the revolution in 1959, her longing for her native
land is quite apparent in both the Silueta series and in her choice of mediums(Mendieta). Most of her work depicts a longing to commune with nature, to return to
the simplicity of nature and to return to that relationship with the Earth. As such she explores a number of ways in which she can interpret her own bodys way
of relating and making this connection with nature. A reflection of her fascination with myth, the Silueta are also a reflection on the role of time in the artistic act,
arrested by photography(Mendieta). Almost no one was defining their art as Mendieta was during this time in history. Certainly no one was using their own body as a
medium and in direct opposition to the modern artistic theories of the time used her body as a female body to express the ability of the feminist mind and person
to be a viable vehicle for social commentary. Until this point in time, the nude female body had been objectified by the male artists of the day, but with the