Snowalk, 2009.
Single-channel digital video, color, sound, 9:00.
The pieces by Ana Mendieta that speak to me the most are those where her bare body is placed directly into nature. In Native-American religions, like in Buddhism, the human body is not separate from the rest of the cosmos. The body is only part of nature. Pain is a way of meditating that reaffirms this notion because it can temporarily erase the division between the body and its surroundings. There comes a point in this exercise when the pain is so strong that it gets rid of the ego. I do not think of this as sacrifice or as masochism.