Matthew Attard

Maltese artist Matthew Attard’s work, Eye Drawing My Passport, consists of a drawing of the artist’s passport made with his eyes. Attard uses an instrument to track eye movements in real-time during the act of seeing. Used scientifically to study a sighted person’s degree of attention, emotional reactions and cognitive processes, Attard traces how his eyes observe the world around him, thus making the relationship between looking and representing conceptual and dematerialised. The artist measures the degree of attention, pupil movements and pauses in scrutinising an object, then downloads the data and translates it into a drawing that traces, in this case, the lines and shapes of his passport. Eye Drawing My Passport is a reflection on the legal value of this type of document, on the mobility it grants or denies depending on the nationality represented, as well as a reference to the buying and selling of so-called “golden passports” implemented by nations such as Cyprus until 2020 and Malta to this day, which grant access to the European Union to anyone who can afford it.

Matthew Attard (1987, Valletta, Malta), lives and works in Edinburgh. Currently pursuing a practice-based PhD at Edinburgh College of Art, he earned a Master’s degree in Digital Art in Malta. Attard works primarily with drawing in many forms; through his works the artist explores themes such as optical perception, the transformation of everyday life into data, and creativity expressed through technology. Many of his works are created using an eye tracker, a tool used to track eye movements. He has exhibited in shows at Spazio Gamma, Milan (2022); Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice (2020, 2019, 2014); P420, Bologna (2019); and Artissima Telephone, OGR, Turin (2019). He exhibited at the 3rd edition of “The Latitudes of Art”, Genoa (2017) and at LACMA, Los Angeles (2019).