Gabriel Chaile — Archaeology of Memory

Chaile's first London institutional solo, on now at Whitechapel through Sep 6. Monumental adobe figures built from local organic clay, reinterpreting the ceremonial forms of north-west Argentina and holding ceramics he scavenged from the East End — a 'migrant collection' where the journey of the object mirrors the journey of the people. He calls it the genealogy of form. The ovens don't just sit there; in past shows they bake and feed. Craft as canon-keeping, not nostalgia.