PEREZ BRAVO Martha Maria

Marta María Pérez Bravo (born 1959) is a Cuban artist who is best known for her black-and-white self-portraiture, in which she often uses her own body as the central subject-object to express her own belief in - and practice of - Afro-Cuban religions, particularly Santeria and Palo Monte. Much of her art is informed by this practice, and engages with the themes of ritual, motherhood and femininity, expressed through the highly stylized posing of her body, which is placed in relation to personally and ritually significant objects in her self-portraits.

Pérez Bravo's work is usually staged, small-format black-and-white photographs where she uses her body as a vessel to express her cultural and religious perspective. She is deeply connected to her cultural background, especially the religious belief of the Afro-Caribbean Santería. The Santería believe that the divine exists in all things, even in everyday objects. These objects are often "votive offerings and other elements of popular lore" [3] of her Cuban culture. This is why Pérez Bravo chooses such familiar objects such as rope, branches, and animal parts to express the divine nature of all things. Her photographs attempt to express her own spiritual path, documenting her progress through abstract and dream-like staged photographs. Although her spiritual path itself remains vague, we are given a glimpse into her divine experiences. This is done primarily by her transformation of her own body alternatively into an altar or an offering, or a vehicle for sacred meaning. There is an emphasis on the exploration and performance of both spiritual and physical power in Pérez Bravo’s self-portraiture, which together “remythify” the female body and notions of femininity.[4] Her photos are often grounded in her own lived experiences of worship and womanhood, especially the expression of maternity, desire and death, which she expresses through manipulation and presentation of her physical body.