Series 2005-2007
Acrylic on Canvas
SOVEREIGN
SOVEREIGN is a series of seven works through which Analia Bordenave addresses the place of women in society, confronting the historical, moral and social structures that have shaped the conditions of their lives. Rather than approaching the female experience from a single perspective, the series brings together seven distinct works that examine the right to self-representation, the judgment imposed on women's bodies and conduct, personal history, motherhood, spirituality and the culmination of female sacrifice in lineage.
The Argentine flag appears as the recurring background across all seven works, establishing a shared visual ground for these different dimensions of the female experience. Bordenave's use of her own body as a paintbrush is equally fundamental to the series. Her body does not merely appear as a subject within the image; it participates directly in the act of painting, becoming the instrument through which the work is physically produced. The relationship between the female body and artistic authorship is therefore embedded in the very process of creation.
The seven works give form to this inquiry through different personal and collective experiences. SED DE SER (SELF-PORTRAIT) addresses women's historical dispossession of self-representation and their right to become the authors of their own image and expression. A STONE AT HER and LA PUTA QUE NO TE PARIÓ confront the moral condemnation and sexual double standards directed at women. In TRIBUTE TO SAMARA, Bordenave acknowledges an alter ego and a part of her own personal history. MOTHER & FATHER honors her experience of raising her children alone, while recognizing women who assume both parental roles; her children participate in the work. MY LORD gives artistic form to her personal relationship with spirituality. Finally, IN THE NAME OF THE MATHER, AND OF THE DAUGHTER, AND OF NATURE. AMEN. addresses female sacrifice and its culmination in lineage, bringing the relationship between Mother, Daughter and Nature into the work.
Together, these seven works articulate a multifaceted account of women's lives, connecting individual experience with the broader social conditions that define and constrain women's place. Through the recurring national background and the artist's embodied painting process, SOVEREIGN makes the question of who determines a woman's place inseparable from the question of who has the right to represent, judge and define her.
In SED DE SER (auto-re-trato), Analia Bordenave confronts the historical dispossession of women’s capacity for self-representation and the conditions that drive them to reclaim themselves as the source and subject of their art. Through questions about self-definition, independence, the right to claim one’s place, and the desire to materialize the inner world, the work examines the forces behind this reclamation.
Self-portraiture becomes an assertion of authorship and autonomy. No longer defined by an external gaze, the woman determines how she appears, what she reveals and what she brings into existence. Bordenave leaves these questions open, extending their significance beyond the individual to the broader historical condition of women. The work ultimately affirms their fundamental right to claim their place and give visible form to their inner world.
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: SED DE SER (Self-Portrait)
MEASURES: 47" x 64". Polyptych: 4 pieces forming a front and back
TECHNIQUE: acrylic on canvas
YEAR: 2008
"SED DE SER"
(A THIRST FOR BEING)
"SED DE SER"
2008
LA PUTA QUE NO TE PARIO
TEXTO EN LA OBRA
Hombres necios que acusáis
a la mujer, sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpáis;
si con ansia sin igual
solicitáis su desdén,
por qué queréis que obren bien
si las incitáis al mal?
Combatís su resistencia
y luego, con gravedad,
decís que fue liviandad
lo que hizo la diligencia.
¿Cuál mayor culpa ha tenido
en una pasión errada:
la que cae de rogada,
o el que ruega de caído?
¿O cuál es de más culpar,
aunque cualquiera mal haga;
la que peca por la paga
o el que paga por pecar?
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
escrito en 1688
*mi especial agradecimiento a las valientes mujeres que obsequiaron sus besos para esta obra. AB
You foolish Men, who accuse (English)
TEXT IN THE ARTWORK
You foolish men, who accuse
Women without good reason,
You are the cause of what you blame,
Yours the guilt you deny:
If you seek the love of women to win
With ardor beyond compare
Why require them to be good,
When tis you who urge their sin?
You break down their resistance,
Then declare quite seriously,
That their lightness has achieved
What you won by your persistence.
In a passion that is guilty
Who bears the greater blame:
She who fails on being entreated,
Or he who fails to make entreaty?
Or when each is guilty of sin
Which is the most to blame:
She who sins for payment,
Or he who pays for the sin?
Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz
written in 1688
* my special thanks to the brave women who gave their kisses for this work. AB
In LA PUTA QUE NO TE PARIÓ, Analia Bordenave confronts the mechanisms through which patriarchal power has historically judged, condemned, and controlled women. The deliberately provocative title turns the language of accusation back against the very structures that produce it, exposing the hypocrisy of a moral order that imposes standards on women while absolving those who enforce them.
At the heart of the work is Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Hombres necios que acusáis (1688), a powerful denunciation of the contradictions inherent in the treatment of women: men who provoke the behavior they subsequently condemn, demand resistance while undermining it, and assign women the blame for desires and actions in which they themselves participate. By bringing Sor Juana’s words into the work, Bordenave establishes a dialogue across centuries, revealing the persistence of these structures of judgment.
The incorporation of kisses offered by other women introduces an intimate yet collective dimension. The female body, historically subjected to scrutiny and moral judgment, becomes a source of presence and participation. What was used to condemn women is confronted through their own gestures, voices and physical contributions.
Through this convergence of language, historical critique and embodied participation, Bordenave transforms the work into an uncompromising challenge to the authority to judge women and define their place in society.
"LA PUTA QUE NO TE PARIO"
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: LA PUTA QUE NO TE PARIO
TECHNIQUE:mixed on canvas
MEASURES: 75" x 47" (triptych painted on both sides joined together with hinges).
YEAR: 2008
"LA PUTA QUE NO TE PARIO"
"... LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT STONE CAST THE FIRST SIN.”
In ...A STONE AT HER, Analia Bordenave confronts the enduring mechanisms of moral judgment directed at women and the authority assumed by those who condemn them. Drawing on the biblical episode of the woman threatened with stoning, the artist transforms its familiar moral injunction into a pointed reversal: “Let he who is without stone cast the first sin.”
This inversion shifts the focus from the woman subjected to condemnation to the person who claims the right to judge. The stone ceases to be merely an instrument of punishment; it becomes a measure of the accuser’s own moral responsibility. Bordenave exposes the contradiction of a society that positions women as objects of scrutiny while allowing those who judge them to remain beyond judgment.
Executed in mixed media on metal with magnetic darts, the work gives physical presence to this confrontation. The darts evoke the gestures of targeting and accusation, bringing the dynamics of judgment into the material language of the piece. The viewer is confronted with a fundamental question: who has the authority to cast the first stone, and what does that act reveal about the one who throws it?
Through this incisive reversal, Bordenave challenges the legitimacy of condemnation and exposes the unequal moral standards imposed upon women.
"...A STONE AT HER"
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: “ Let he who is without stone cast the first sin.”
MEASURES: 32" x 20".
TECHNIQUE: mixed on metal with magnetic darts
YEAR: 2008
"TRIBUTE TO SAMARA"
2008
In TRIBUTE TO SAMARA, Analia Bordenave transforms the act of tribute into an intimate gesture of self-recognition. Samara is an alter ego of the artist, embodying a part of her personal history that she chooses to honor and acknowledge through this work.
Rather than portraying Samara as a separate subject, Bordenave gives form to an aspect of her own personal narrative, bringing it into the present through art. The work becomes an affirmation of the experiences and dimensions of the self that have shaped the artist’s journey. Through this tribute, Bordenave recognizes Samara not as a distant memory, but as an integral part of her own story.
"TRIBUTE
TO SAMARA"
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: TRIBUTE TO SAMARA
TECHNIQUE: mixed on canvas
MEASURES: 55" x 31" triptych
YEAR: 2008
"MOTHER & FATHER
at the same time"
2008
In MOTHER AND FATHER, Analia Bordenave honors her own experience of raising her children alone, while paying tribute to all women who undertake the responsibilities of both mother and father. The work acknowledges the demands and sacrifices involved, but places its emphasis on what these women accomplish: sustaining a family, shaping their children’s lives and building a future through their own determination.
Her children participate in the artwork, extending its meaning beyond an individual account. Their presence places her personal experience within a collective recognition of women who raise their children on their own. What begins as an intimate tribute becomes an affirmation of their strength, agency and achievements.
"MOTHER &
FATHER
at the same time"
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: MADRE Y PADRE A LA VEZ
MEASURES: 51" x 40"
TECHNIQUE: acrylic on canvas
YEAR: 2008
"MY LORD..."
2008
In MY LORD, Analia Bordenave gives form to her personal connection with spirituality: an intimate relationship with a presence she recognizes as part of her own existence. The work emerges from an individual experience of faith, one that is neither prescribed nor defined by religious convention, but shaped by her own perception, convictions and inner life.
The work expresses a deeply personal relationship with the divine. Rather than presenting spirituality as an abstract belief, Bordenave approaches it as a lived connection—an encounter that belongs to her and informs the way she understands her place in the world. MY LORD makes this private dimension visible, affirming spirituality as an individual and deeply personal bond.
"MY LORD..."
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: MY LORD
MEASURES: 63" x 56"
TECHNIQUE: acrylic on canvas
YEAR: 2008
"In the name of the Mather, and of the Daughter, and of Nature. Amen"
2008
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In this work, Analia Bordenave draws together motherhood, spirituality and nature to address the profound dimension of female sacrifice. The invocation of the Mother, the Daughter and Nature places women at the center of a passage that extends beyond individual existence and unfolds across generations.The work speaks of the sacrifices borne by women and their culmination in the lineage: the passage from mother to daughter through which those sacrifices acquire their ultimate meaning. The Daughter represents the continuation of what the Mother has endured and given, carrying that legacy into the next generation.Through this relationship, Bordenave addresses the culmination of female sacrifice in the lineage itself—the transmission from one generation to the next.
"In the name of the Mother, and of the Daughter, and of Nature. Amen"
SERIES: SOVEREIGN
TITLE: "In the name of the Mother, and of the Daughter, and of Nature. Amen"
MEASURES: 110" x 110"
TECHNIQUE: acrylic on canvas, front and back
YEAR: 2008
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