Sweating Blood

Ana Mendieta, Sweating Blood, 1973, single channel, super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent; 03:18 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, Administered through the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, 2021.38, © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Artwork Details

Title: Sweating Blood
Artist: Ana Mendieta
Date: 1973
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
3rd Floor
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North Wing
Copyright: © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, Administered through the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative
Mediums: video
Mediums Description: single channel, super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent; 03:18 minutes
Classifications: Media Arts
Subjects: Figure female
Object Number: 2021.38
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2021.38

Artwork Description

This three-minute film captures a performance by the artist in a darkened space. As Ana Mendieta remains still and expressionless, drops of blood-red moisture, at first difficult to perceive, slowly accumulate along her brow, then pool and trickle down her face.

For Mendieta, blood is a powerful symbol. Used across Catholic, Caribbean Santería, and pre-Columbian spiritual practices, it can evoke life as well as death. Sweating Blood is among a group of works the artist made in the wake of the rape and murder of a woman on the campus of the University of Iowa, where Mendieta was a student at the time. Both the sacred potential and violent implications of blood are suggested in this confrontational yet ambiguous performance.