Autorretrato (Self Portrait)

Drawing on artist Gabriel Chaile’s Afro-Arab and Indigenous ancestry, Autorretrato (Self-Portrait, 2022) treats these physical elements as a sculptural trace of hybrid identity, shaped by centuries of cultural mixing following the Spanish colonisation of the Americas in the 16th century.

Across cultures, archaeologists note that hair has historically served as a marker of identity, often reflected in art and material culture. Inspired by the head of the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf (c. 25,000 BCE), one of the earliest surviving representations of the human body, Chaile’s clusters of raised forms suggest the base of hair. In the front, the artwork is covered in knots that mimic his own hair recalling his Afro-Arab and Latin roots.

Amongst these knots, subtle eye-shaped impressions emerge offering a measured indication of identity and establishing the work as a self-portrait without depicting a face. The eyes appear on both sides of Autorretrato, forming what Chaile describes as a two-headed sculpture, a common feature in pre-Hispanic ceramics. Each set of eyes expresses a different mood, introducing a sense of duality that brings both dynamism and psychological depth.  By fusing these elements, Chaile unites individual identity with the ancestral, creating a self-portrait that is both personal and collective.

Autorretrato also emerges from Chaile’s deep engagement with the archaeological ceramics of north-western Argentina, often referencing shapes found in Indigenous ceramic materials once used in everyday practice. More precisely, the sculpture’s simplified cone-like shape is based on a traditional pipe used for smoking. Crafted in adobe, a clay that was often used for Indigenous architecture and pottery across the continent, the work grounds the self in the earth.  Through what Chaile calls a “Genealogy of Form,” Autorretrato becomes a map where the individual and the ancestral meet and where memory is preserved.