StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Artist - Case Study Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper describes the significance between documents and pictures in photographic history. traditionally there a documentary photographs i.e. photojournalism and pictures emulating history, but not necessarily reality. In documentary photographs, the objective is to produce objective, truthful, and candid photographs…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.4% of users find it useful
Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Artist
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Artist"

Ana Mendieta, a Cuban American artist most famous for her performance art and earth-body sculptures, documents through photography her more memorable art such as the series of performances from 1972, the “Facial Hair Transplants.” In these performances, a male student, Morty Sklar, shaves his beard and mustache while Mendieta applies the pieces of hair to her face. Through these satirical transferals of hair to her own face, she in effect assumes the symbols of male power. In one of the portraits, “bearded,” she reveals herself as an earnest Amish farmer.

In another photograph, she is outfitted with a curled mustache complete with gold hoop earrings, so she appears as a mischievous, devilish pirate. What these photographs show are Mendieta’s gender examinations as she strives to find her place as a woman and as an artist. As contemporary photographers continue their ongoing dialogue of the difference between photographs as documents and photographs as pictures, I believe that Mendieta’s photographs can be defined as a document and as a picture both.

A document is defined as a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity and usually the intent to communicate. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information. A picture is defined as a two-dimensional artifact that captures a similar image. Given that the original presentation of Mendieta’s piece was a performance and then captured via photograph, her “faces” can be considered as the physical representation of the information Mendieta’s is trying to capture, that she is able to assume the symbols of male power as she tries to understand her place in the art world.

This “document” symbolizes gender examination and portrays to the viewer the struggle of woman in a man’s world through a humorous approach. Her photographs are pictures that capture reality, capture images that currently do not exist and probably will not exist. The purpose of a picture is to show a viewer true life that can never be seen in its true form ever again, which Mendieta captures in her pictures. Furthermore pictures are especially valuable when the art is moving and its life span is limited.

The significance between documents and pictures in photographic history is that traditionally there a documentary photographs i.e. photojournalism and pictures emulating history, but not necessarily reality. In documentary photographs, the objective is to produce objective, truthful, and candid photographs that are usually used for project purposes, publication, or public forum. Pictures, historically, are subjective, they have the artists intention behind them, pictures have a message from the artist that needs to be told through stretching, altering, and skewing the objects, people, and landscapes before them.

Documents offer an objective reality whereas pictures offer an explanation for reality. The reasoning being choosing Ana Mendieta’s piece of work “Facial Hair Transplants,” is because it offers a chance for reality to be captured in a picture, where the truth is not stretched, where a candid moment of humor, satire, and the difference between men and women are demonstrated.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Case Study”, n.d.)
Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Case Study. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/culture/1500705-photography-college-essay
(Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place As a Woman and As an Case Study)
Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place As a Woman and As an Case Study. https://studentshare.org/culture/1500705-photography-college-essay.
“Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place As a Woman and As an Case Study”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/culture/1500705-photography-college-essay.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Mendietas Gender Examinations and Her Place as a Woman and as an Artist

Managing the Artist

With regards to this, the text look at the music industry and focuses on the theme of personal, management and how it relates to the success of any single musical artist.... hellip; This work focuses on the musical artist Leon Jackson as an example of trying to explain this concept of music as a business and specifically on the theme of personal management of the artist.... Jackson is a contemporary adult and pop song artist who began his music career in 2007 after winning a recording deal in a talent show....
10 Pages (2500 words) Case Study

The image of the woman artist in the Italian Renaissance : Sofonisba Anguisola

??4 Undergoing such process of training, especially for a woman... The famous Italian Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguisola (1535-1625) can be viewed as a true manifestation of such observation.... Sofonisba Anguisola's father was a great admirer of art and creative cultures, and the kind of fame that the artist enjoyed during her career received a fertile foundation through her father since her childhood.... her father Amilcare Anguissola, compared to the cotemporary social trend of upbringing girl children, was much advanced and despite his financial problems, provided all sorts of facilities and supports to her daughters for their educational as well as cultural advancement....
4 Pages (1000 words) Term Paper

African American Artist outline

all around the African Diaspora, and in addition the world and her natures domain.... he artist influences both Africa and America in a positive way as she makes use of images from traditions in Africa, the popular culture and her personal politics to make images in various media.... 1] Born in Kansas, brought up in Pittsburg, living in Washington, DC, and emphatically associated through her specialty to New Orleans,… Her specialty reflects this, with topical enthusiasm toward African Diasporas society from all around the United States. Renee was conceived in Junction City, Kansas, and brought up in Pittsburgh, in a family that Renee Stout the artist Renee Stout born 1958 is a contemporary craftsman known for array fine arts managing her particular history and African-American heritage....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Gender Issues in Art

At first, considered insufficiently intelligent to understand the concepts of the world outside the home and only beginning to gain some recognition as viable members of society in centuries leading toward the Victorian period, the idea of a woman was still confined to the inner workings of the home and family.... The concepts “by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues – piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity....
9 Pages (2250 words) Coursework

Roots in Creations of Women Artists

a woman needs to be assured that it's fine for her to violate the rules of female passivity, which she has been taught from time immemorial.... a woman's desires, yearnings, inabilities and ability to transform incapacities into capabilities are well analyzed by her in the works.... This being the general plight of women in any culture and society, a woman artist who occupies a public figure image is still more crucial.... The viewer's reactions to the perception of her works make them think in solitude about the artist and her intentions in volume....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study

Where are the Women in Art

The concepts “by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues – piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.... Even though art was one of the few areas where women could gain a decent education, any attempt to step out of the boundaries of home and family into the commercial world of the professional artist was deemed unfeminine, thus strongly discouraged.... nbsp; Through the Middle Ages, the concept of 'woman' was still confined to the inner sanctity of the home and family....
5 Pages (1250 words) Assignment

Patriarchal Social Construction

While discussing the reason behind such discrimination Simone de Beauvoir has pondered over the definition of a woman as it has been in the social context, “…first we must ask: what is a woman?... The concepts “by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues – piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.... This paper, Female artist, stresses that the history of human civilization, artistic and intellectual movements is mainly dominated by male artists and humanists....
7 Pages (1750 words) Term Paper

Contemporary Artists

The sculpture is also obtained by fixing in place several toothpicks in order to generate an extraordinary geometric construction that recalls the structure of a starburst.... This case study "Contemporary Artists" surveys five selected modern artists namely Tom Friedman, Jenny Saville, Olafur Eliasson, Peter Doig and Rita Ackermann....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us