Chantal Lesley uses self-portraiture and the Andean concept of pachakuti to explore identity, belonging, and transformation across borders.
Austin, Texas / chantallesley.com / @chantallesley
In Austin-based artist Chantal Lesley’s self-portraits, a nude female figure cocoons around herself protectively, bowed over the bare earth. Her presence in the landscape feels as natural as the sand dunes and tall grass that surround her. Within her vulnerability there is a sense that she is in the midst of surrender or, perhaps, acceptance.
In Andean cosmology, the concept of pachakuti refers to a major cycle of change that ultimately ushers in a new era, referencing the historical transformation of the small town of Cusco into the vast Inca Empire in the 13th century. In the Indigenous language Quechua, the word directly translates to “the overturning of space-time.” During this transformation, one reality ends and another begins.
Lesley engages with pachakuti in this series of photographs as a grounding framework, using her body as a site to explore this transient period of upheaval and renewal. Within this mindset she traverses her identity and situates herself within inherited cultures, histories, and physical spaces.
“Raised on the U.S.-Mexico border as the daughter of immigrants, I understand identity as something continually negotiated, existing between languages, geographies, and systems of belonging,” states the artist. “These photographs hold space for uncertainty and in-betweenness.” Rather than rejecting the feelings of estrangement or alienness, Lesley embraces them as part of the cycle of belonging. Although pachakuti begins with chaos and catastrophe, the aftermath is a cosmic re-balancing.
In other bodies of work, Lesley explores her cultural identity through textiles and sculpture, engaging with themes of memory, myth, and liminality. In the series Contained, she layers archival family photos cropped in the shape of a hyphen on top of photos from her hometown, touching on topics of intersectionality and belonging by simultaneously framing the punctuation mark as an element of connection and as a boundary. She constantly reconsiders her lived experience and all of its nuanced, interconnected facets.
And so, the metamorphosis continues as the figure gently amalgamates into the landscape. As if evolving. As if returning home.
