Coco Capitán releases her latest photobook Naïvy

Following on from her 2020 exhibition Naïvy at Maximillian William Gallery, Capitán collates the exhibited work, inspired by the iconic sailor suit, into an archival book object

Amid the ocean, surrounded by salty sea and swathes of the sky, Coco Capitán intends to disappear; to melt into the uncharted: “The margin of the rest of existence.” But not alone. Capitán will voyage with a collective, a reimagined Navy of sorts “in which everyone [is] lost and [can] celebrate this uncertainty,” as read the opening text of her exhibition Naïvy at Maximillian William Gallery in late 2020. The show was composed of paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures inspired by Capitán’s contemplations on the iconic sailor suit.

A new book sheds light on the work. Naïvy is a collaboration between Capitán, Maximillian William Gallery (co-publisher), InOtherWords (co-publisher), and OK-RM (designer). Bright, burning blue loops the publication together: swirling seas, thick paint, and the sailor suit embellished with embroidery, acrylics and words. Capitán’s ‘Lost Naïvy’, as she describes it, comes alive in its pages. The fictional collective is far removed from its military counterpart; identity is fluid, groupthink disappears, and although the collective sails together, each member is distinct. It is something Capitán conceived from her desire to transcend society’s strictures: “I wanted to form a collective, which could exist outside the rules of convention; a collective of people as lost as myself.”