BOOK:Yoan Capote, SKIRA Publications

Yoan Capote’s work is the result of psychological analysis of our daily experiences and issues related to the broader social and human experience. His work often resembles but alters common forms, such as shoes, ladders, and furniture. Many of Capote’s works deal with Cuba and its relationship to the U.S.A., referring to economic and cultural ties. His work also has a strong erotic element, depicting desire both between the countries and embodied sexuality. This facet of Capote’s work combines with and changes the minimalist forms that his pieces often assume, subverting their spareness. With essays by: Danielle Knafo,  Charmaine Picard, Nelson Herrera Ysla & Magda González and 290 photos, the book “Yoan Capote” by SKIPRA Publications is the first monograph dedicated to his work.  Utilising allegory and visual puns as Yoan Capote creates sculptures and installations, which, while they relate to the immediate context of their making, Cuba during the economic crisis that began in 1989 (Período especial) and subsequent post-Fidel era, are not restricted solely to this framework.  Equally, although his works often have an autobiographical impetus or observation behind them, they are abstracted from any specific experience or detail to become reflective of the human condition in general.  Capote met Bourgeois on one of his first trips to the United States, where she encouraged him not to abandon classical techniques like bronze casting and stone carving. This meeting with Bourgeois was pivotal, “Louise Bourgeois gave me a lot of encouragement to continue in the psychological direction”. For “Stress (monumental)”, (2010), his own experience as a tooth grinder led him to collect thousands of teeth from Cuban society by posting advertisements at clinics and medical schools. He cast all the real teeth, including his own wisdom teeth, in bronze and spread them out in layers, which he set between four blocks of concrete stacked in a modernist-style monolith.–Efi Michalarou