Knowing You Could Tear My Heart Out (Before)
2011
41″ × 32″ × 11″
pencil on paper, archival mounting board, medical tape, drywall
Knowing You Could Tear My Heart Out (Before) is a drawing taken from a photograph that is both historical and in Shpungin’s family album. It shows Shpungin’s father scrubbing up before the very first open-heart surgery in Latvia. The image fluctuates between connotations of healing and something more sinister—the moment before someones life is in your hands. The drawing is bound by medical tape and adhered to broken segments of drywall as a sort of artifact. Referring to her fathers’ subject matter and methods in both domestic life and his profession as a surgeon, Shpungin translates his approach into her own artistic practice as a form of apprenticeship.
Knowing You Could Tear My Heart Out (After)
2011
40″ × 32″ × 10″
pencil on paper, archival mounting board, medical tape, drywall
Knowing You Could Tear My Heart Out (After) is a drawing taken from a photograph that is both historical and in Shpungin’s family album. It shows Shpungin’s father seated next to a patient after the very first open-heart surgery in Latvia. The image fluctuates between connotations of healing and something more sinister, the narrative is unclear—we are not sure what happened. The drawing is bound by medical tape and adhered to broken segments of drywall as a sort of artifact. Referring to her fathers’ subject matter and methods in both domestic life and his profession as a surgeon, Shpungin translates his approach into her own artistic practice as a form of apprenticeship.