False sense of familiarity
Paula Punkstiņa
02/11 - 29/11/2024
Can distorted memories undermine the integrity of one’s sense of self? Carl Jung’s concept of individuation often begins with an inner wound—a trauma that sparks a conscious journey toward self-understanding. This path involves the formation of a metaphorical second skin, layered with the parts of ourselves that we have denied or repressed. Under the weight of pride, memory itself can yield and reshape.
How to reconstruct the past when so many fragments of it are hidden in the subconscious? The artist asks the question: how can we revise the frames through which we perceive ourselves and our history? Confronting the unpleasant souvenirs—the unwanted memories—offers a path toward healing, a chance to form new beliefs that might restore cohesion to a fractured self-image.
Through blending her personal archive with found images and materials like foam plastic and sharply reflective metal, the artist crafts tactile structures that stabilize the varied, shifting faces of memory.
Paula Punkstina (b. 2001) is a Latvian visual artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. A graduate of Riga Design and Art High School, currently a student at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Her work explores themes of identity, constructed belief systems, and ideas of collective and post-memory.
Photos: Ieva Viese and Lidija Zaneripa
Paula Punkstiņa
02/11 - 29/11/2024
Can distorted memories undermine the integrity of one’s sense of self? Carl Jung’s concept of individuation often begins with an inner wound—a trauma that sparks a conscious journey toward self-understanding. This path involves the formation of a metaphorical second skin, layered with the parts of ourselves that we have denied or repressed. Under the weight of pride, memory itself can yield and reshape.
How to reconstruct the past when so many fragments of it are hidden in the subconscious? The artist asks the question: how can we revise the frames through which we perceive ourselves and our history? Confronting the unpleasant souvenirs—the unwanted memories—offers a path toward healing, a chance to form new beliefs that might restore cohesion to a fractured self-image.
Through blending her personal archive with found images and materials like foam plastic and sharply reflective metal, the artist crafts tactile structures that stabilize the varied, shifting faces of memory.
Paula Punkstina (b. 2001) is a Latvian visual artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. A graduate of Riga Design and Art High School, currently a student at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Her work explores themes of identity, constructed belief systems, and ideas of collective and post-memory.
Photos: Ieva Viese and Lidija Zaneripa