Paula Punkstiņa’s ‘The Arrows of Concerns’ Explores Identity and Vulnerability at Kim?
Latvian visual artist Paula Punkstiņa will present her exhibition, ‘The Arrows of Concerns,’ at the Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga from March 14 to April 19, 2026. Curated by Zane Onckule, the exhibition delves into the complexities of identity, exploring its fragile and constantly reforming nature.
Deconstructing the Self
‘The Arrows of Concerns’ approaches identity as a liminal space—a threshold between states—characterized by vulnerability and continuous reconstruction. Punkstiņa’s operate examines how the self adapts under pressure, bending, fracturing, and dissolving, yet ultimately persisting. The exhibition oscillates between vulnerability, resistance, playfulness, and detachment, tracing the adaptability of subjectivity.
Materiality and Metaphor
At the heart of the exhibition lies flexible polyurethane memory foam, serving as both a structural element and a metaphor for the exposed body. This material absorbs impact, yields to pressure, and slowly returns to its original form, representing what Punkstiņa terms an “essence model”—mutable yet retentive, marked by experience but resistant to permanent distortion.
The foam is manipulated through various interventions—pierced with bamboo arrows, coupled with taxidermy fragments, bicycle parts, and synthetic hair—transforming it into a site of exposure and self-revelation. A honeyed, porous membrane, resembling a second skin, sometimes sheathes the material, offering a suggestion of protection without fully isolating the inner from the outer.
Prosthetic Frameworks and Existential Narrative
The sculptural objects within the exhibition function as prosthetic frameworks for an existential narrative. Fragmented human and animal anatomies—hair, antlers, and limbs—embody unstable states of being, resonating with Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, which explores the oscillation between identification and repulsion.
Clinical and industrial references, evoking operating tables or indefinable mechanisms, introduce calculated interventions and a restrictive atmosphere. This sterility contrasts with the softness of the materials they interact with, creating a palpable tension. The image of the doe serves as a recurring symbol, embodying innocence, naivety, youth, and belonging, which Punkstiņa deconstructs to question the illusion of permanence and explore the boundaries between life, death, presence, and erasure.
Memory, Distortion, and Transformation
Punkstiņa incorporates photographic collages made from personal archives and found images, expanding on themes of memory and distortion. These works question whether fragmented and unwanted memories can distort existence. The artist explores the idea that individuation begins with cutting away layers of self-help, revealing repressed emotions and suppressed experiences.
Punkstiņa’s practice resides in the tension between disintegration and reconstruction, highlighting vulnerability, interdependence, and uneasy proximity. The exhibition marks a turning point in her artistic approach, moving away from aluminum plates and UV printing towards processes where the idea is directly translated into the material—through fired edges, perforations, and fused coatings.
Artist Background
Paula Punkstiņa (born 2001) is a Latvian visual artist who graduated with a degree in photography from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Pete Black Institute in Rotterdam. Her work emphasizes the exploration of identity, fragility, and transitions. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at DOM Gallery in Riga (2024) and an upcoming duo exhibition with Sara Frankkol at Art at the Center in Liège (2026). She has also participated in group exhibitions at Kim? Black Market (2024, 2025), Paradise in The Hague (2025), RESTART gallery Prospectus in Vilnius (2024), and the Limburg Biennale at Marres House for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht (2024). Punkstiņa was selected as a laureate of “Kim? Open Call 2026.”