Ana Mendieta - Blood & Fire - Galerie Lelong 2011

Among one of the 80-odd short Super-8 films Ana Mendieta made during her abbreviated lifetime, is one entitled Sweating Blood from 1973. During the film's three minutes, the camera closely frames Mendieta's face against a black background, from chin level to the crown of her head. Eyes closed, utterly impassive, the blood gathers almost imperceptibly at her hairline and seeps along the parting of her hair; slowly, a line of blood snakes downward toward her left eye. This constitutes the entire "action" of the film, and it is the movement of the dripping blood that concludes it.
Texts by Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Linda Montano, Nancy Princenthal, and Mary Sabbatino