Espiritugrafia

wall-painting in Barcelona apartment
size: 255 cm x 140 cm



sizes: 65 cm x 98 cm
materials: Japanese paper (washi), ink



size: 48 cm x 40 cm
materials: Japanese paper (washi), ink



size: 64 cm x 95 cm
materials: Japanese paper (washi), ink



size: 96 cm x 40 cm
materials: Japanese paper (washi), ink


"Espíritugrafía: Soul Scribbling"

Before learning cursive as a child, I remember scribbling, usually unintelligible words, that I pretended were written in an alphabet I didn't yet know. Many years later, after studying with a Japanese calligraphy teacher, I found myself in the same position. This time, I called it an artful act, equally exploratory.

Early written languages began as pictograms, drawings taken from observing the natural world. The earliest Chinese characters for gate and mountain are realistic depictions, similar to what a child's stick drawing might look like. As language evolved, so did abstract concepts and the symbols used for them.

In "Soul Scribbling," rather than take ideograms from my natural surroundings like early pictograms, I observe from within, promoting the evolution of an individual proto-language. If codified, would this lead to a way of communicating that could help understand and evolve the deepest parts of oneself?

Matthew Puntigam

Nature Series Japan

sizes (all): 64 cm x 98 cm
materials: Japanese paper (washi), black ink

Performance Installation

A Body in Place: the largest organ
size: 70 in. x 70 in.
2004
materials: black gesso on canvas, skin, fixing adhesive spray



central view, footprints


performance stills

A BODY IN PLACE: Skin, The Largest Organ

The epidermal layer is a site of death and regeneration of which I am hyper aware. It constantly demands attention. A well repeated ritual: rub, scratch, soothe, treat, hide. I see it transform itself endlessly. With skin issues that have come and gone throughout most of my life, and with no definitive results from dermatologists or allergists, I decided to make my own diagnosis with the critical thought and eye that an artist might use.

Standing naked on a canvas for a total of 8 hours, I indulged my skin, tending to all the tiny requests that arose -- stretching, scratching, picking, massaging. Atopic dermatitis and eczema causes my skin to flake, and as skin began to fall and blanket the black canvas around my feet, I remained steadfast. My movements were recorded by the amount of detritus piling up, centralizing an intimate and visceral process that scratching entails. Giving my skin a territory of its own on the canvas was a spatial and temporal map, negotiating the 'placelessness' with which I criticized my body. Degenerative changes were recorded as skin documents, a displaced me was reformulated, and 8 hours of videotape captured the scene.

That thin boundary between us and the world, the skin, is also the most immediate protective layer. However sensitive this biological layer is to us, we are sensitive to it, sometimes caught between social, political, and personal spheres. As a layer that highlights some of our most personal concerns and society's biggest problems, the particular meets the universal.

The most important moment of my 8 hours came in the early morning hours, when my eyes had gone too relaxed and fatigued by the strong overhead light source. Squatting, with a fixed blank stare at white flakes and follicles on a black background transported me to a place far from my current coordinates. Suddenly, I was standing above a galaxy of stars. Each point of light I knew contained the genetic information that linked it inextricably back to one organism. The body became a metaphor for the micro and macro processes of change that I both contribute to and to which I am subject. Our deep connection to each other became apparent, no matter how far our worlds may seem on the surface.

Matthew Puntigam

Sculpture

Ginko Repose
24x78x5"
2004
Ginko leaves on bamboo mat

Oils

Red Blue 4
36x36"
2004
oil on canvas


Red Blue 3
28x28"
oil on MDF board


Red Blue 2

49x38"
2004
oil on canvas


Red Blue 1
48x36"
2004
oil on canvas


Blue Painting 2
35x48"
2004
oil on canvas


Yellow Painting
21x31"
2004
oil on canvas


Brown
54x47"
2004
oil on canvas


Red on Yellow
47x47"
2004
oil, pollen, hydrocortisone, plant fibers on canvas


Blue Painting 1
57x60"
2004
oil on canvas


Red Painting
60x47"
2004
oil on canvas


White Painting
36x48"
2004
oil on canvas

Artist's Resume (currículum)

Matthew B. Puntigam
matthew.puntigam@gmail.com

EDUCATION

Tokyo University of Agriculture 2009-2010
Keiko Asada Calligraphy School, Okazaki, Japan 2005-2006
University of Barcelona Jan. 2003 – Aug. 2003
Brown University, Providence, RI Sept. 2000 – May 2004

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
"A Body in Place, Part I: The Largest Organ" Brown University 2004
"Surveillance on the Jazz" (photography) List Arts 2004
"Primeairies: Back to Basics" List Arts 2004
"Blue Paintings" Office of the Vice President, Brown U 2004
"Narratives of Space: graffiti art and negotiating public spaces" Masonic Temple, Providence, RI 2003
"Praising the Point: Small Paintings on Process" Residence of Laly Martinez, Barcelona, Spain
2003

GROUP:
"Spring Calligraphy" School of Asada-san, Okazaki, Japan 2006
"Free to be Who you are Becoming: Rites and Reason Theater, Providence, RI 2004
An Art Exhibit and Jam"
"Art Should Not be Boring" Hillel Gallery, Providence, RI 2004
"Blue Room Show" Blue Room Gallery, Providence, RI 2003

COLLECTIONS: Cliff and Barbara Tannenbaum, Providence, RI
IBIS Consulting, Inc. Headquarters, Providence, RI