Impotence 2004
In the middle of the large open room two eight-foot-square speakers sit facing each other far enough apart for one person to walk between...
Description
In the middle of the large open room, two eight-foot-square speakers sit facing each other far enough apart for one person to walk between them. Through one large speaker the artist’s voice thunders “No.” The viewer must put his or her ear up to the small speaker on the opposite side to hear the artist quietly affirming “Si.”
Curated by Magda Ileana González-Mora
Yoán Capote was born in Havana, Cuba in 1977, where he lives and works. He attended the Provincial School of Art in Pinar del Rio, Cuba from 1988-1991; the National School of Art in Havana, Cuba from 1991-1995; and the Higher Institute of Art in Havana, Cuba from 1996-2001. Jack Shaiman Gallery has represented Capote since 2010. The unique experience of being Cuban, influences his work, which often deals with themes of migration or government that reference Cuban identity yet is universally accessible.
Capote has exhibited extensively, including in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, France, England, Panama, Cuba and the United States. He uses sculpture, painting, installation, photography, and video to create analogies between the visual poetry of inanimate objects and the intangible world of the mind. He merges incongruous items, such as human organs and mundane objects to plumb ideas of humanity. His work deals with the intimate and the personal, while investigating constructions that are based in power and difference.