The Art Institute’s room of Ana Mendieta works in the Contemporary section were striking (plus, how fantastic that they organize the rooms by artist). Mostly showing the Silueta Series, the performances and the images taken of them show the contours of the artist’s body against the earth in different settings. Often, this image is created with organic material although the artist frequently uses her own body in her work, like in this Untitled (Grass on Woman) from 1972:

Called earth-body art in a hybrid of two 1960s art movements, Mendieta used her body or a female outline in her performances. The show her interjecting the female form into nature, often evoking a sense of ancestral and prototypical female goddess worship.

More information about the artist’s background and untimely death.