This paper examines the video performances of Pola Weiss and Ana Mendieta as ritual acts that blur the boundaries between the material and spiritual realms. Both artists use their bodies as symbolic tools within charged spaces—natural landscapes, domestic interiors, and ruins—transforming them into sites of sacred expression. Their videos function not just as documentation, but as visual rituals that summon ancestral, feminist, and elemental presences. In line with the theme The Power of Images in Sacred and Festive Spaces, this research explores how their imagery fosters transcendental experience and collective memory. It also highlights how their work contributes to conversations on decolonial aesthetics, feminist spirituality, and the emotional power of images in ritual practice. Through embodied performance, Weiss and Mendieta create images that are both personal and universal—icons of resistance, identity, and spiritual transformation.
"At the Otago Polytechnic’s School of Design, we aim to foster positive bicultural thinking through the development of dual visual literacies. With cultural competency in mind, our visual communication programme enables learners to explore indigenous (Māori) culture in various ways, including aspects of symbolism, ritual and ancestral connections. This approach addresses our responsibility as treaty partners as well as an expectation for designers to use their craft to promote “cross-cultural understanding” and a “sense of belonging” (McGuiness, 2020).
To share our insights, we present two case studies that illustrate techniques used to develop capabilities around cultural visual expression in Aotearoa New Zealand. The first looks at efforts to develop Māori visual literacy by connecting students with place, through the practice of interactive visual journalling. The second focuses on the application of evolving knowledge to an event celebrating a Māori-observed phenomenon called Matariki, which has discernible parallels to Día de los Muertos. "
