Iván Capote

b. Pinar del Río, Cuba, 1973; resides in Havana, Cuba 

Espacio Incompleto (Incomplete Space)

2008

Steel and sand

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Iván Capote is a renowned Cuban contemporary artist, a fundamental figure of the daring late 1990s generation. His work addresses a conceptual idea of linguistic tradition that sees the interstices of language and its materiality through an ontological, existential, political, and social lens. Words assume the double role of meaning and structure―their visual constructions give language a three-dimensional character.

 

In this sculpture, the letters of the word “SOUL” compose four of the faces of a cube, creating an incomplete geometric shape. The minimalistic metal forms incorporate space as a mechanism for the optical challenge. 

 

Playing on the viewer's curiosity, the discovery process continues with each step as one walks around the work. Each position and perspective produce a new image until it is possible to visualize the message, the word, the image.

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*This piece was included in the exhibition section titled "The Language of Forms and The Forms of Language."