Artist Coco Capitán on ‘selfish’ art, Bad Bunny and her Hong Kong debut show

“I think all artists are incredibly selfish,” says Coco Capitán from her home in Stoke Newington on a typically dreary Friday morning in London.

“Art is a very self-involved activity. You’re constantly thinking about what you’re going to create next and what you have to say for yourself. It’s tiring. Sometimes my biggest dream is not to be an artist any more. But I don’t think I chose to be one, I just think I couldn’t be anything else.”

She may sound like she’s on a bit of a downer – Capitán does after all have a cold and has decided it would be better to do our interview via video call – but context is everything. I’ve just asked her if she uses art to understand herself, and whether she sees it as a form of therapy.

“What I want to do … it comes as a need,” she adds by way of further explanation. “I need to do it, and I won’t stop until the idea is out there. But I do find it antisocial,” she adds. “You get a kind of tunnel vision.”

The idea that the act of creating art is both selfish and antisocial is particularly ironic, because right at the beating heart of Capitán’s work – which spans photography, painting and written text – is a celebration of community, belonging and human connection. And the more we talk, the clearer it becomes that she creates to help others; to help them imagine a different reality for themselves, and to find the joy in life.