''Untitled (Rape Scene)'' is a color photograph documentation created from a 35mm slide by

Cuban American Cuban Americans ( or ) are Americans who immigrated from or are descended from immigrants from Cuba. As of 2023, Cuban Americans were the fourth largest Hispanic and Latino American group in the United States after Mexican Americans, Stateside ...

artist

Ana Mendieta Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter, and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. She is considered one of the most influential Cuban-American ar ...

. She made it during an April 1973

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

while still a student at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. It is one of three photographs she created in reaction to the rape and murder of a woman on campus. The

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in London, which owns the work, describes it this way:

Mendieta invited her fellow students to her apartment where, through a door left purposefully ajar, they found her in the position recorded in this photograph, which recreated the scene as reported in the press. Some time later, Mendieta recalled that her audience "all sat down, and started talking about it. I didn’t move. I stayed in position about an hour. It really jolted them." In 1980, she commented that the rape had "moved and frightened" her, elaborating: "I think all my work has been like that – a personal response to a situation ... I can’t see being theoretical about an issue like that." On another occasion she explained that she had created this work "as a reaction against the idea of violence against women."Viso 2004, p.256, note 58.

Art writer Megan Heuer describes the work as capturing the artist's interest in violence. Influenced by the work of the Viennese Actionists, ''Untitled (Rape Scene)'' also expresses Mendieta's desire to evoke a visceral reaction from her audience.

Bibliography

* *Szymanek, Angelique. "Bloody Pleasures: Ana Mendieta's Violent Tableaux," ''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society'' 41, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 895–925. *Viso, Olga M. ''Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972–1985,'' exhibition catalogue,

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, Washington DC, 2004.

References

{{performance art Angelique Szymanek, "Bloody Pleasures: Ana Mendieta's Violent Tableaux," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 41, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 895–925. Performance art 1973 works 1973 in art University of Iowa Feminist art Political art Photographs in the Tate galleries Works about rape 1970s photographs Color photographs Violence against women in Iowa