A world in reverse: the work of Maritza Molina.

The photograph Cutting the Pattern (2005) stresses ongoing feminine cliches. Most of these cliches are created in the realm of female beauty, through female costumes and postures adapted from the Victorian era, such as the submissive cleaning lady, the sexy but dangerous vamp, the loud-mouthed bitch, the maternal bride, etc., all in postures that further instill their cliches. According to the artist, these patterns withstand generation after generation, despite the many social changes made by women for women: "These patterns are still the same, even though the world has evolved and women's positions are assumed to be different." The work's process follows a few steps. First, the artist photographs herself dressed in these costumes and their cliche postures. Then she projects them on batting and creates cutouts from them that are larger than life. The artist holding a machete is the missing "pattern," depicting strength and independence. Here, the machete is not implied as a masculine tool, but references the artist's upbringing in Cuba where the machete was used by both women and men to cut sugarcane in the fields. These cutouts are also done as molds for sewing, referring to one of the most typical low-paid jobs of women during the Victorian era--the seamstress--but also the female modes or models constructed by society for women to follow. The cutting of these patterns by the artist also serves to deconstruct their meanings, reinserting them into the field of visual language and culture. Finally, the artist mounts the cutouts on trees before doing her final photographs.

"You're Not Like We Are" (2003-2004) is a series of four photographs, done as an installation with sound. Each photograph shows a scene in which various women without underwear cover their heads with their skirts, circling the artist, who is dressed and composed. The women who surround the artist have voluptuous bodies, characteristic of femininity in many cultures. The work deals with the competitive tension among women to please men, which reveals not self-confidence, but that they are in fact threatened by each other. Their competition is based on who is the most womanly, the sexiest, and possessing the most curves. In this piece, the artist portrays herself in a period of transition between the innocent girl and the woman whom she is becoming, aware that she cannot trust the messages around her, but instead has to rely on herself. This piece is shown with a sound installation in which the voices of women chant in a childish manner: "You're Not Like We Are!" Their childlike voices and attitude emphasize their role in reinforcing their lack of connection and truthfulness--another cliche constructed by women and reinforced by society.

Molina's performances and photographs in the nude show her resistance against certain taboos still dominant in some Catholic circles. "Carrying Tradition," from 2005, is a photographic series dealing with the dichotomy present in tradition: no matter which culture one comes from, one's individuality is often threatened by mores and values instilled in society. In relation to Catholic religion, guilt can play an important role in keeping one from standing out within ritualized societal norms. The photographs portray Molina's nude body covered with white powder, on her knees, pulling a wagon filled with men dressed in business suits. Molina is here portraying a wild horse that exercises a self-induced control, since no one is actually controlling the horse. The wild spirit of the horse signifies the potential will toward freedom and self-expression, which all women have, but is often kept in check, unexplored, and unfulfilled.

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The relation between religion and art is a recurrent theme in Cuban contemporary art. Since the 1980s, artists such as Jose Bedia, Ricardo Rodriguez Brey, Juan Francisco Elso, Jose Manuel Fors, Flavio Garciamdia, Gustavo Perez Monzon, and Leandro Soto--all of whom had work included in the controversial exhibition "Volumen I" (at the Centro de Arte Internacional, Havana in 1981)--made a critical point of inserting religion as an element of revolution into a period in Cuba when religion was strictly forbidden. Only once, in 1981, did Mendieta visit the Island after her exile in the late 1950s. Mendieta's work, which focused strongly on performance and ritual, became influential to many local artists of the next generation. One of them was Tania Bruguera, who created performances intended as continuations of Mendieta's work. The history of Cuban performance and its connection to ephemeral art seems related to the work of Molina. The 5-minute video Conquering Space (2004) depicts a strong relationship with performance. The video depicts a woman fighting an invisible fight with a sword against the impermeable energies surrounding her. According to the artist,

Conquering Space deals with the notion of permanence/impermanence in my life. Empowered by a feeling of physical permanence, the fight with space is a fight with everything unknown that I want to grasp and control, and with all of the energies that oppose me, from the past, in the present, and the resulting future. It is a never-ending, never-winning fight against what I can't see or reach, and anger towards what I can't control, including my own destiny and mortality. It is the unwillingness to realize my own insignificance as a person in the grand scheme of the universe, no matter how important, present or grounded I may feel in the space and time when I am reflecting on my own existence.

Here, too, the assumed connection with ritual would seem undeniable, particularly between the woman warrior and the fight or dance of Orixas in Afro-Cuban rituals. However, the intention of the artist is not connected to this allegory; it entails her own struggle with memory, a memory that is both permanent and in constant flux. Despite the disinterest of trendy art in regard to religion, especially because of religion's ritualistic implications, and the centuries that separate high art from "primitive" art, or ritualistic art, which parallel the superiority of culture over nature, at least in the minds of Western art historical tenets, Molina's use of religion and nature shows a strong sense of individuality, while also broadening other social ambiguities in the relationship between Third World and dominant societies.

The iconography of Catholicism displays the religion through a great variety of visual metaphors--saints, angels, the holy trinity, the dove--all mixed with storytelling, dogmas, chanting, praying, singing, and recitation. This potential of visual representation in Catholic language has been a rich ground for the connection with syncretic religions such as Santeria. The bodily features of the saints, their clothes, and weapons become even more mysterious and fascinating when presented as Afro-Cuban deities, such as orixas. The orixas are associated with forces of nature, and the devout or the medium becomes the orixa's "horse" (a person in trance controlled by the spirit of the orixa), and dances and sings under the orixa's influence. Even though Molina stated that she never participated in a Santeria session, and her experience of Catholic traditions are now on the more superficial level, her work resonates with some of these cultural elements in its visual narrative. It is important to note that in socialist Cuba, the Catholic schools have became inoperative; and even though no other churches were built during Fidel Castro's government, the ones already existing were not destroyed. Perhaps because Castro had been raised a Catholic, he allowed the existing churches to teach religious studies, but not to provide a full education as before.