Andean man: figures in action soar at UN exhibit.

Andean sculptor Peruko Ccopacatty has lived in the United States since 1981, but as he said in a recent interview about a retrospective exhibit of his work in the United Nations Secretariat lobby last year, "I have never left Peru". Born in 1946 in an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca, he pays homage through his art to his ancient Aymara ancestors, the pre-Incan indigenous peoples who inhabit the Altiplano regions of Bolivia and Peru, as well as northern Chile and Argentina. He sees the exhibit, and his simultaneous acceptance in December 2003 of the United Nations Society of Writers and Artists Award of Excellence, as giving voice to the Aymara and, in a larger sense, to the indigenous peoples past and present. The show that held sway for two weeks at UN Headquarters was a mix of monumental figures crafted from metal and smaller maquettes--models for larger works. Several copper wall reliefs were also on display. Ccopacatty's signature dynamism--figures in action caught between one movement and another--was in full view, with each piece a testament to his over-the-top energy and exuberance. His themes of family, work, struggle and triumph are particular and yet at the same time universal. "My work represents a universal human drama", he explains. "It symbolizes the living actions of people, mostly struggling in life, the human condition."

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Enter musicians with pipes, farmers wielding pickaxes and hoes, warriors taking long strides, an anguished mother cradling a child, and the family--the nuclear unit and the extended one. Using scrap metal as his prime medium, Ccopacatty, who fashions himself an environmental artist, creates fluid, live-action forms. "I chose metal because I am a man of steel; my society anciently worked in metal", he says of his 25-year career as a sculptor. "I work to liberate metal from scrap and make it a creation of art. I look for aesthetic, human form from what has been discarded. I want people to see themselves in the sculptures."

His work, which includes spectacular painted murals, has a wide audience across the Americas, but doctors in particular have marvelled at his figures, amazed at the accuracy of his depiction of the human body. Open constructions, his pieces are windows into muscles, tendons, bones and sinew, sometimes writhing, always striving. Mostly using steel and stainless steel, Ccopacatty focuses on large-scale public art. His sculptures can be viewed in a wide range of settings, from college campuses to sculpture parks to municipal buildings, in addition to his gallery and studio on Block Island and West Kingston, Rhode Island (United States), respectively.

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When asked to explain Chasquis/Messengers of the Empire Inca (pictured above), the show's towering centre-piece, he answered with characteristic simplicity and bravura: "My name is Ccopacatty, and I speak the language of the Incas. I am from the Andes of Peru, from the secret Lake Titicaca, a lake that formed our history. The Incan Messengers and I travel together, bringing a message from my ancient and sometimes forgotten land, to remind the world of our culture, our music and the monumentality of our achievements. To me the message of the Empire Inca is that we are still alive." It's very much so.

For further information about Peruko Ccopacatty and his art, visit www.ccopacatty.com

Val Castronovo, a former Senior Reporter at Time Magazine, where she worked for 21 years, is a freelance journalist specializing in art exhibitions coverage and arts-related stories. Her articles have appeared in the United Nations Secretariat News and seniorwomen.com.

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