Genealogía de la forma BARRO Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires 1 June – 20 July 2019
For his solo exhibition at BARRO Arte Contemporáneo in Buenos Aires, Gabriel Chaile proposes a Genealogy of the Shape as a collective poem that is constantly under construction. An ensemble of sculptures is organized in the exhibition space as a large organism that breathes through arteries of steel and copper. Such a peculiar community of sculptures is connected, arranged in an obedient formation, before the presence of a clay oven transfigured in a fierce anthropomorphic figure which is escorted by two imposing industrial structures that evoke urban antennas andsolar screens. An industrial and sacred energy that goes through the portside neighbourhood of La Boca, with its silos and abandoned places, its tanks and its echoes, transfixes the urban landscape into archeological figures.
Adobe, mud and metal outline these shapes which are organized to make us part of a subjugating situation always in motion, a history that is defined by the technological transformations and primary resistance that traction our present. Smoke, movement and heat account for the inhalation and exhalation that reaffirm that these shapes are alive, breathing and resisting. Chaile acts as an anthropologist, recognizing the intrinsic changes in the surface of objects and revealing their history in order to bend their destinies by decontextualizing them and diverting them from their “natural state”.
Installation views of “Genealogía de la forma” at BARRO Arte contemporáneo, Buenos Aires. All photos by Santiago Ortí.
From left to right: Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue) and iron pipes, 200 x 70 x 70 cm; Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue) and iron pipes 180 x 65 x 65 cm; Iron Structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue) and iron pipes, 200 x 50 x 50 cm; Iron structure, bronze plate, nails, 12 bricks, electrical installation, iron pipes, 3 led spotlights 10Watts 3000K 220V, bronze and plate welding of Alamito culture face, 305 x 120 x 120 cm.From left to right: Iron structure, copper plate, nails, 12 bricks, electrical installation, iron pipes, 3 led spotlights 10Watts 3000K 220V, bronze and plate welding of Alamito’s culture face, 305 x 120 x 120 cm; Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue), iron and bronze pipes, bricks, wires, egg filled with cement and two cigarettes. 265 x 140 x 140 cm; Iron structure, copper plate, nails, 12 bricks, electrical installation, iron pipes, 3 led spotlights 10Watts 3000K 220V, bronze and plate welding of Alamito’s culture face, 305 x 120 x 120 cm.From left to right: Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue), iron pipes, bronze and eggs filled with cement, 170 x 70 x 70 cm and 85 x 40 x 40 cm; Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue) and iron pipes, 200 x 70 x 70 cm; Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue) and iron pipes, 180 x 65 x 65 cm.From left to right: Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue), iron pipes, bronze, and eggs filled with cement, 170 x 70 x 70 cm. 85 x 40 x 40 cm; Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue), iron pipes and clay vessel, 120 x 80 x 80 cm; Iron structure, adobe (clay, sawdust, wood shavings and vinyl glue), iron pipes and 2 brick cylinders, 159 x 128 x 80 cm.Iron structure, brick, resistor, and electrical installation, 90 x 120 x 120 cm.
