HANDSHAKE PROJECT - Key Persons
Ana Mendieta was born in Cuba in 1948. Her father, Ignacio Mendieta, was a lawyer who had worked with the FBI during World War II. In 1960 he became involved in an uprising against Fidel Castro and was concerned for the safety of his family. At 12, Ana Mendieta and her older sister were sent to the United States alongside as 14,000 other Cuban children, via a secret program run by Catholic Charities and the U.S. government to help children flee Castro's government. The sisters, who were supposed to be placed in foster care temporarily, moved between refugee camps, orphanages and foster homes in Florida and Iowa.
Mendieta found it difficult to adjust to life in predominately white North America. She experienced herself as a minority for both her ethnicity and gender and reflected on being sexualised as a woman of colour, despite being only 12-years-old. Mendieta was not reunited with her Mother and brother until 1966, when she started university. Her Father remained in political prison in Cuba for 18 years ans wasn't reunited with the family until 1979.
Mendieta studied at the University of Iowa where she became involved in the feminist art movement. Her work explores themes of displacement, transience, absence, violence, belonging and identity. The separation from her family and exile from her country of birth had a profound impact on her art, as did her fascination with tribal religious practices, connecting her to the earth and informing her use of extensive use of blood.
In 1977, Ana wrote: "It is perhaps during my childhood in Cuba that I first became fascinated by primitive arts and cultures. It seems as if these cultures are provided with an inner knowledge, a closeness to natural resources. And it is this knowledge which gives reality to the images they have created."
"It is this sense of magic, knowledge, and power, found in primitive art, that has influenced my personal attitude toward art-making. For the past five years I have been working out in nature, exploring the relationship between myself the earth, and art, using my body as a reference in the creation of the works, I am able to transcend myself in a voluntary submersion and a total identification with nature. Through my art, I want to express the immediacy of life and the eternity of nature." (https://www.vice.com/en/article/gym79y/ana-mendieta-fought-for-womens-rights-and-paid-with-blood, accessed 12/6/24)
The excruciatingly long history of women being painted as nudes in Art galleries, (as noted by the Guerrilla Girls - ‘Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?' 1989,) is transposed by artists like Mendieta, who fearlessly explored her own body in her work. Here she is the as the driving force of the discourse rather than a passive subject of the the male gaze.
Mendieta's seminal ‘Siluetas' series, comprised of over 200 artworks where Mendieta's blended her body with natural surroundings or imprinted her body onto the ground - photographing the remaining marks on the earth, her presence removed. She often enhanced these outlines with red pigment, stones, or local materials, even setting them on fire.
Ana Mendieta died in 1985, at the age of 36, after falling from the window of her 34th-floor apartment in New York which she shared with her husband. Her body fell to the delicatessen below, leaving a mark on its ceiling echoing her ‘Siluetas' work, the circumstances surrounding her death remain controversial and have sparked ongoing discussion and investigation.
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Justene Williams, is an contemporary Australian artist who makes her large-scale immersive works, using multi-channel video installations, photography and performance. Through challenging social norms, using of found objects and waste materials, collage and...
Job Titles:
- Artist Statement
- Partner at Collective Jewellery Studio Workshop6
A commitment to social and environmental issues drives my work and presents through conscious choices of materials, processes, content, and an interest in collaboration, interactivity, and accessibility. Recent work translates personal data from daily drawings into experimental adornment and objects, exploring the space where rationality and intuition collide.
Self employed since 2004, Mia Straka is a partner at collective jewellery studio Workshop6 in Auckland. Straka's jewellery, sculpture, installation work and interactive projects have been exhibited widely and toured public museums, galleries and libraries both locally and internationally. The artist has run workshops and taught classes both at Workshop6 and various public institutions and galleries, the most recent being in 2022 at Objectspace as part of the exhibition Mark Work's public programme. Work is held in the public collection of The Wallace Arts Trust, NZ.
Job Titles:
- Creative Director
- Artist, Organiser, Artistic Director, Lecturer
MTS (Vakschool Schoonhoven), MFA (Hons) (Elam, Auckland University), DipTeach (NL&NZ). Peter studied jewellery making and fine art in both the Netherlands and New Zealand. He is active in his practice, making work for national and international exhibitions, and instigating opportunities for the wider jewellery art community.
Peter is both a contemporary artist and a craftsperson. Ideas that make distinctive connections with jewellery are the inspiration for his practice, which is highlighted through a series of engaging artworks with inspiring topics (see below). He is interested in how value is perceived and how that is communicated through objects we appreciate and wear. Peter exhibits throughout New Zealand. His work is in various national and international private and public collections. His work, philosophy, and ideas have been addressed in numerous publications.
Peter is active in the arts community, known as both a maker and an advocate. He founded MAKERS 101 (M101), an organisation that has initiated and managed projects like the HANDSHAKE project and Aotearoa Jewellery Triennial. The HANDSHAKE project, funded by Creative New Zealand, supports emerging New Zealand jewellery artists through exhibitions and development opportunities, while the Triennial provides opportunities for curators' visions.
Peter is dedicated to arts education and believes in the unique artistic potential of each student participant, whether they are creators or appreciators. He supports the wider creative community and continues to contribute with projects like the Jewellery Triennial and other sector opportuneties. His passion for jewellery and the arts is evident in how he turns ideas, projects, and teachings into meaningful experiences for many.
Judy (Judith Darragh, my handshake mentor), has suggested I take a look at a series of performance Artists who deal with the body and a piece that I find meaningful. I am starting with the incredible Yoko Ono. Ono's work often questioned the...