The six photographs that make up the series Volcán are part of a larger body of work by Mendieta, including a film, entitled “Siluetas” (Silhouettes). Comprising radical performative pieces and other works centered on the outline of her own body, Mendieta created these “earth-body” works in the US, Mexico, and Cuba between 1973 and 1980. Through these works, Mendieta explored her physical connection to the earth and its elements (water, soil, fire) by using her silhouette as a surrogate for her physical body.

Volcán is one of a hundred “Siluetas” that Mendieta created through fire: for the artist, fire represented a primeval force of both destruction and renewal. In Volcán, Mendieta sculpted a mound of earth into an abstracted female form. She then laced the imprint with gunpowder and set it on fire. Mendieta created her works without an audience, leaving behind a visual record that exists only on Super 8-mm film and in photographs. The ephemerality of this medium reinforced the feminist, anti-colonial themes of Mendieta’s performance, with the body of a woman of color remaining elusive, unable to be claimed or possessed.