Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000 Page: 25
112 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Elso's art came too close to ritual, and that since it insisted
on a ceremonial renunciation of the body, it could be relat-
ed to the premature death of both artists.
It may be said that postmodernism opened paths
toward the vernacular and alterity, and that an artist such
as Mendieta adopted a postmodern "international" posture.
But a true interconnection of sense occurs in her case, while
postmodernism has rather interchanged signifiers and
techniques between planes of "high culture," popular [cul-
ture], mass media, etc. that maintain their own separate
discourses and circuits. In Mendieta we do not deal with
the "primitive" or the vernacular within "high" or "interna-
tional" culture, but rather we see them in the making of
that culture. This change of perspective creates a tension
within the "postmodern" category. The crucial aspect of this
position is the internationalization and dynamic capacity
for contemporary action from subaltern cosmovisions.
It is true that all this occurs within the elite circuits of
"high art", not in the field of popular culture. An interven-
tion of the popular-non-Western-subaltern-peripheral in
the "high"-Western-hegemonic-central occurs, bridging the
two polarities in an "upward", not "downward" direction. In
any case, this is a step forward, superceding Eurocentrism in
the practice of art. If globalization indeed stifles pluralism
on the one hand, it facilitates it on the other, and implicit
decenterings remain under the control of centers that "self-
decenter," in a lampedussian strategy of changing so that
everything remains the same. But at the
same time these "changes" offer a plausi-
ble critical edge. This pulsation charac- "
terizes contemporary culture as a field of
post-Cold War tensions. The ethno-cul-
tural debate has unfolded into a space of
power struggles, in the symbolic as much
as in the social realm. These struggles
oscillate between assimilation, tokenism,
the rearticulation of hegemonies, the
affirmation of difference, and the critique a
of power, among other tensions. Even if
seen just as a paradigm, Ana Mendieta
projects herself beyond the pseudo-
decentrality of postmodernism toward a
real decentering, which, as an activating
plurality, may trigger transformations. ,
Ana Mendieta, Silueta Works in Mexico, August 1973,
16"x20", Color photograph documenting earth /body
work with sand, water, red pigment, Salinas Cruza,
Mexico. Courtesy of the Estate of Ana Mendieta and
Galerie Lelong, New York. ' .dolos. Ocurre un cambio de perspectiva que tensa la cate-
goria "posmoderno". Lo crucial en esta perspectiva es la
internacionalizaci6n y capacidad de acci6n contem-
porinea de cosmovisiones subalternas.
Es cierto que todo esto sucede en el "high art' y sus cir-
cuitos de 61ite, no en el terreno de la cultura popular. Tiene
lugar una intervenci6n de lo popular-no occidental-subal-
terno-periferico en lo "culto"-occidental-hegem6nico-cen-
tral, comunicando los dos costados hacia "arriba", pero no
hacia "abajo".
De todos modos, se da un paso hacia la superaci6n del
eurocentrismo en la practice del arte. Si bien la global-
izaci6n por un lado aplana y por otro facilita el pluralismo,
los descentramientos implicitos permanecen bajo el control
de centros que se "autodescentran", en una estrategia lampe-
dussiana de cambiar para que todo quede igual. Pero a la
vez brindan un flanco critico aprovechable. Este pulseo car-
acteriza la cultura actual como campo de tensiones post-
guerra fria. El debate etnocultural ha devenido espacio de
luchas de poder, tanto en lo simb6lico como en lo social.
Aquillas se empefian entre la asimilaci6n, el tokenismo, la
rearticulaci6n de las hegemonias, la afirmaci6n de la difer-
encia y la critica al poder, entre otras tensiones. Aunque sea
mas bien como paradigma, Ana Mendieta se proyecta mis
ally de la seudodescentralidad posmoderna hacia un descen-
tramiento real, que puede originar transformaciones desde
una pluralidad actuante.ARTLIES Fall 2000 25
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Angelini, Surpik & Hernández, Abdel. Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000, periodical, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228058/m1/27/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .