Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints – Face),

1972

In her documented performance, Mendieta pressed a piece of glass against her face and different areas of her naked body to complete a series of thirty-six slides. She later selected thirteen slides featuring her face to be printed as black-and-white photographs, including this work. The hauntingly close view of Mendieta’s deformed features conveys a sense of alienation and challenges the viewer to decipher her altered facial attributes. The series was among Mendieta’s earliest experiments with body art and affirm control as much as they bemoan the violent pressure and resulting discomfort inflicted upon the protagonist. In her strikingly modern reinterpretation of the grotesque, Mendieta embraced the disquieting force of deformity as a commentary against the societal biases she had experienced as a Cuban-American female artist.