No abstract

The art of Ana Mendieta, though still largely unrecognized, has an important place in art history. Not only is it significant to the development of new ways of creating art, but the ideas presented call into question commonly accepted attitudes of American society in radical ways. In her rejection of the gallery space and transformation of performance art into sculpture works, into art as a disappearing act, Mendieta explores the shaky boundaries of what art actually is and could be. In these explorations, she dissects the idea of identity and gives it a new definition on her own terms. This essay explores Mendieta's mostly ignored early works in conjunction with her more well known later pieces in order to give a more full examination of both the ideas present and the importance the work has beyond her own personal life and to the whole of society.<br />

El futuro del feminismo depende no sólo de sus pasados, sino de cómo estos pasados se imaginan en pos de nuestro tiempo compartido. Los legados del feminismo son sus intervenciones en métodos de investigación histórica, sin embargo, como sugiere este número de Nierika, el feminismo está enfrentando un “momento de eliminación”. Los historiadores feministas permanecen atrapados en modelos divisivos, y decididamente no feministas, de pensar las historias desde los años 1970. Este ensayo intenta combatir la carencia de ejemplos del “hacer” la historia del arte feminista, articulando estrategias que interrumpen el proceso de escritura e investigación. Usando mis propias experiencias con mujeres artistas en México, demuestro cómo métodos de “grounded theory”, teorías postcoloniales y de movimiento sociales, proveen las técnicas necesarias para imaginar los pasados feministas que solidifican su importancia a un presente y futuro compartido.

Recent gestures in feminist and Latin American exhibitions do not sufficiently account for the unique position of Latin American artists engaging with feminist aesthetic practices. Looking to the space given Mexican artists in three recent blockbuster exhibitions, I demonstrate that the resulting curatorial constructions activate art historical mythologies that work to further solidify exclusion from the international art world. In examining the effects these in/visibilities have on collective knowledge of Latin American feminist art histories, I ultimately suggest possibilities for change rooted in critical and conceptual cartographies that speak both from and to feminism’s folds, activating intergenerational networks vital to maintaining feminism’s unfolding historical and contemporary relevance.

This article is a reflection on the potential of craftivist pedagogies to disrupt the neoliberal university model and work towards building international solidarity networks. It offers a case study centered on the incorporation of the craftivist collective Bordeamos por la Paz into two distinct US-based classrooms and disciplines: Art History and Latin American Studies. Part of a nationwide, yet grassroots movement in Mexico, Bordeamos works to memorialize victims of disappearance and violence through the collective creation of hand embroidered panels. Reflecting on the shared experience of crafting a community-engaged service-learning (CESL) curriculum with Bordeamos, we advocate for the ways these courses enabled a space of civic responsibility rooted in embodied knowledge and “being with” in order to resist replicating problematic power dynamics.