Alexis de Chaunac

Lives and works in Chicago, IL, USA

Artist statement

My practice explores the entanglements between cultural memory, embodied experience, and material transformation. Born in Mexico to a French-Mexican family and now based in the U.S., I engage with the fluidity of belonging through collage, drawing, and object-making. Using mark-making as a universal language, I create works that arise from indexical gestures, touch, friction, accumulation, rooted in both personal narrative and collective ritual. Collage is foundational to my practice. I work with found materials, worn fabrics, and printed ephemera to stage encounters between memory and material decay. I often scratch through surfaces to expose hidden iconography, approaching the image as an archaeological site. A recurring motif is the Milagro, small metal ex-votos depicting fragmented body parts. These forms, like the iconography of the empty chair, function as stand-ins for longing and absence, creating a symbolic lexicon of resilience and dislocation. Recently, I collaborated with Publican Quality Bread, gathering discarded couche linens, bread baskets, and wooden peels, materials imprinted by daily labor. On these surfaces, I draw lungs in graphite, transforming them into corporeal relics. I am interested in how these tactile remnants become carriers of breath, warmth, and care. This inquiry continues with Boiler Brain, an emerging project that reimagines the building’s shared heating system as a communal organ. I consider the boiler not just as infrastructure, but as...

Artwork