Last week, Coco Capitán came together with Dazed and adidas Originals for an event during Frieze Week in London, celebrating the Stan Smith as a canvas for self-expression. Commissioned to create a series of bespoke artworks for the occasion, the Spanish artist brought her text-led practice into the space, with her signature aphorisms displayed in a distinct space for guests to discover within the venue.
Known for her handwritten phrases and sharp observations on life, Capitán has built a multidisciplinary practice spanning photography, painting, writing and installation. Whether working with words or images, her approach is rooted in finding the right way to communicate an idea, often stripping things back to their simplest form. For this project, she drew on the relationship between sport and creativity, taking inspiration from tennis and the mental game of its players to explore the importance of originality, self-belief and staying open to new ideas.
Working with disused nautical sails as her canvas and Stan Smith green as her chosen colour, Capitán created a series of works that reflect the shoe’s enduring place in creative culture.
Below, we caught up with the artist to talk about her process, the thinking behind the new pieces and why falling in love with your first idea might not always be the best move.
Your practice moves between photography, painting, writing, installation and design. What connects all of these different ways of making things for you?
Coco Capitán: It’s more about the point of view and the idea than the medium. I’m out in the world, looking at things and trying to make sense of them, sometimes through writing, other times through photographs. Each medium does something the others can’t: a photograph does not require words to express complex and very specific ideas, while words can be equally specific, but it is your mind that renders them, creating images based on your previous experiences and what you have seen before. I find this contrast fascinating.
I have no intention of perfecting or focusing exclusively on a single medium. I try to keep my voice consistent across the different media I work in; that’s where I place the challenge.
You’ve described yourself as someone who is constantly writing things down, from passing thoughts to more developed poems and aphorisms. Where does writing sit within your creative process?
Coco Capitán: Writing is the beginning of pretty much all of my projects. Thoughts and ideas often come to one’s mind in the form of words, and I try to capture them in pencil in my notebook. I give myself a number of pages to write every day, even when I have nothing to say. The dull thoughts are often the ones that turn out to be useful once I manage to discover the underlying themes or patterns within them.
Can you talk us through the starting point for this new work? What was the first idea or image that came to mind when you received the brief?
Coco Capitán: I love sport as much as I love art. In fact, I believe many of the qualities required to succeed as an artist are similar to the ones required to succeed as an athlete: consistency, originality, self-belief and commitment to the game and play. Because of Stan Smith’s association with the tennis world, and tennis being one of my favourite sports, I couldn’t help but think of my tennis idols playing on Wimbledon’s green grass courts and the thoughts that may go through their minds as the score progresses.
How did it evolve from an idea into the WIP sketches we received, and how do you see it changing when it moves to the physical event space?
Coco Capitán: In sketches, I try to express the same idea several times in different ways until I feel there is nothing else to remove – or add, although I am more of an eraser than an adder. I’m a minimalist when it comes to words. I like simple and direct syntheses. I detest the excessive use of adjectives and subjective decoration. I try to make my aphorisms feel relatable and universal, and I often find that by the time they appear on the canvas, I have stripped them of all excess. When writing on canvas, I’m looking to leave an impression in the mind of my reader, and in the current climate, their attention is the most valuable asset. I don’t want to steal a single second in the process of transporting an idea from my mind to someone else’s, so I use resources such as colour, spacing and texture to insist on the concept at hand, so the message can be decoded easily and promptly.
When moving to the physical space, I think of the artworks and the visitor as a choreography. I think of the visitor’s walk through the gallery as the order in which I’m telling my story. Every decision is as radically important as the next when it comes to visually presenting ideas.
“I’m looking to leave an impression in the mind of my reader, and in the current climate, their attention is the most valuable asset,” – Coco Capitán
The idea behind this project is the Stan Smith as a “canvas for self-expression”. What does a blank canvas mean to you within your practice?
Coco Capitán: A completely blank canvas intimidates me; my canvases are often made out of recycled textures that carry a history within them. In this series, I used disused nautical sails to create my surfaces. My canvas for self-expression always needs to carry a history; this history is often my starting point.
The writing in your sketches focuses on the notion of ideas and not falling in love with the first/ second/third idea. How did you come up with this text, and what made you want to display it during London Art Week and for this particular brief?
Coco Capitán: I find it easy to fall in love with one’s first idea. What I am trying to say with this artwork is that falling in love with your first idea and following it blindly may prevent you from contemplating other ideas and solutions that you may love just as much as the first one. By all means, love all of your ideas, but be flexible and generous in the process of thinking: if the first idea fails despite you being enamoured with it, don’t forget there will be a next idea to fall in love with. Why it is fitting for this particular context is self-explanatory.
You’re creating text-led paintings for this project. How does writing directly onto a canvas change the way you think about the words compared to reading them on paper?
Coco Capitán: On paper, they appear in black ink or pencil, so they are stripped to the minimum. On canvas, I have a bunch of other resources, such as colour, size and texture, to convey my point.
For this project, you’re working specifically with Stan Smith green. How do you approach a creative project which is foregrounded in a specific colour rather than chosen more intuitively?
Coco Capitán: In most cases, I think of my aphorisms in monochrome first; it helps me focus on the structure of the quote. In this case, I enjoyed being told which colour to use; it saved me time in the decision-making process. I thought of my words being laid out over a green grass court.