Born in Cuba, Mendieta devoted her creative life to connecting with nature and representing the human form – the female form – in many environments. I was impressed that she found a way to ‘reduce’ the female body to a linear drawing, a symbol, which she introduced and recorded in materials such as soil, mud, sand, rock, bark and flowers.

There are paintings, drawings and examples of how she used this powerful symbol – for example, by drawing it onto leaves and other natural objects. She burned the form onto trunks of trees and blasted in onto rock using gunpowder.

I was very impressed by her commitment to nature and her views on how humans should be mindful of their destructive influence on the environment and the way women are so often ‘washed away’ from history. She was ahead of her time and I do wish that she were still here to continue showing us how we should be mindful of the damage we do. She was active for just ten years, gaining international acclaim for her work, but died at 37.

She used photography to record her ‘interventions’ in natural places which would, in time be eroded, washed away or just disappear. But she recorded her presence using colour and black and white photography. Absolutely fascinating show. It’s on at Tate Modern until mid January 2027.