Coco Capitán: Naïvy
Coco Capitán: Naïvy
Published by: InOtherWords and Maximillian Williams
Review by: Timothy LeBlanc
Naïvy by Coco Capitán, published by InOtherWords and Maximillian Williams gallery, is an excellent catalog for the eponymous show by Spanish artist with this London based gallery in fall of 2020. Though this show is mostly work made in the last couple of years, this catalog acts as a survey of, and to those unfamiliar a good introduction, to Capitán by presenting the the wide variety of mediums in which she works unified around a central theme
This theme is presented to us in the name, Naïvy, a Capitán-ism of Navy and, one imagines, naïve. This isn’t, however, a portmanteau that combines their meanings but an encapsulation of their individual and conflicting messages. Presented inside are both what one imagines when they think of a navy — a line of strapping men in matching outfits upon a hulking ship — and an innocence and youth at war with this. In the short essay Charlotte Eytan wrote for this show, Eytan points out the interesting ideas that Capitán juxtaposes throughout the show: “obscurity and exposure, humor and seriousness, power and fragility, freedom and enchainment.”
The naval uniform itself shows us these competing interactions throughout by being presented in different forms. It’s found in photos and paintings, some historic and some modern. It’s worn traditionally but by a woman, something that would not have been allowed in the 1940s, or by a man going through what we now know as PTSD. WWII Navy jackets quite literally become the works once Capitán embroiders items like a group of daises or her trade mark text directly into the fabric (see Lost Lost Lost, 2020 at the top center below).
This beautifully specific text form is found throughout the catalog. As a digression, I also recommend everyone find a copy of Capitán’s IF YOU’VE SEEN IT ALL, CLOSE YOUR EYES, a book purely of her writings. Here, we find not just embroidery of text, but scrawls of text across studies and a large text painting that, with its expressiveness, rivals any of the more established painters who play with the idea of the painted word.
Capitán’s photos are as much a signature for her as her text – distinctive enough to be easily identified in passing. The work presented here is no different. One of the most interesting photos presented in the catalog, A New Kind of Freedom, Sweden, 2019, is a masterwork. Presented on its own, it’s a somewhat funny photo reading almost as a snapshot which captures a lone individual jumping nude in to possibly frigid body of water. As it is presented here in context with the whole show, one wonders what freedom this represents — is the figure on shore leave having fun, do they have freedom due to some “freedom” that has been secured by a navy, or are they a sailor that has left their uniform crumpled upon the deck from which they have jumped therefore securing their own freedom.
Coco Capitán’s Naïvy published by InOtherWords and Maximillian William, and designed by OK-RM is available here from Maximilian Williams and I highly recommend everyone orders a copy.