--THESIS-RISD-2004--

By Aymar Ccopacatty

Time+Space= PACHA, This word means both time and space in the Indigenous Aymara language of my fathers people.

PACHAMAMA = directly translated means time & space mother, in practice it is the name of Mother Earth on whom we depend for life.

The “Third” World= A term for the worlds “un-devolped nations”, Indigenous peoples comprise an emerging “Fourth World” which lives within “Third World” nation-states.

My work seems to be reaching far beyond the art objects I make, resulting in a larger vision of Art, Creativity and its role in Society. Lately my art objects function to explore my questions and fascinations with both the America and the hegemonic power structures that connect them.. I feel that in my young life I have been privileged, saddened and touched to see humanity in the Americas with my own particular set of eyes. I carry in me the mixed blood of Indigenous South American Aymaras, and Russian/American Jews. At times I feel that I am representative of the calamity inherent in all persecuted people. My life is defined by being Mestizo (the Spanish term for mixed Indigenous/European blooded people)

The Aymara are a millennial people of the Lake Titicaca basin and high plains of the Andes Mountains, The Aymara’s territory is known as Kollasuyu, one of the four corners of the original Inca empire; their territory stretches from northern Lake Titicaka in Peru south to the high plains of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. The Aymara are keepers of an ancient language and culture of the same name; The West has appropriated from the Aymara the Potato, the recently popular Quinoa, a high altitude grain rich in vitamins, minerals and calcium, Llamas, Alpacas, Vicuñas and their fiber, the Coca leaf, which was transformed into Coca-Cola and Cocaine; all of these things were taken from the Aymara. This appropriation has brought the Aymara none of the prosperity necessary to assure autonomy and political power over their indigenous territory. Autonomy and political dominion are essential for the growth and re-affirmation of Aymara identity. Indigenous South American cultures have a long history of utopian social organization, structuring cultures around esthetic, spiritual and astrological frameworks. These cultures where the original Constructivists.

“Constructivism” originated in Russia in the early nineteen twenties by a group of artists and writers. The Constructivists rejected the traditional notion of the work of art as a “Product of individual genius and a marketable commodity. In its stead, they sought to develop a new form of creative activity, one that would fuse utilitarian, ideological, and formal objectives, and would, therefore, be more appropriate to the needs and collective values of the new post revolutionary Russian order in which the worker theoretically reigned supreme.”
By nineteen twenty-two, Constructivism began its migration westward. As it moved across geographical and ideological boundaries, the notion of constructivism underwent subtle but fundamental changes. A major proponent of Russian Constructivism, El Lissitzky, moved to Berlin, Germany in nineteen twenty one. El Lissitzky rapidly created himself as an influential and authoritative representative of original Russian Constructivism in Germany. He and his group put out a publication, which hailed a new era of internationalism and communication between Russia and the West. Lissitzky maintained a distance from any particular political parties, while declaring:

“We are unable to imagine any creation of new forms in art that is not linked to the transformation of social forms”. It is said that for Lissitzky, “the essential task at hand was to use art as a symbolic, ideological vehicle with which to assist in the transformation of consciousness both in communist Russia and in the capitalist West.”

The bold idealism of Lissitsky to transform consciousness underscores the place of art and artists as indicators and transformers of society. The early Constructivist ideals of communality, and universality were opposed to more individual and egotistical art movements. The irony is not lost, that today, in the first years of the new millennium, the current state of global social and political affairs pushes artists to again move counter to the individualist ideal. Certain ideals in art transcend time; they are constant, universal desires for justice or transcendence. This idea of cooperation and universality reflects mankind’s enduring search for ultimate truth on Earth.

The influence of my cultural roots tends to direct my efforts toward community minded art and collaboration, through which one can grow in many ways to manifest for the betterment of humanity. I do not feel that my work thus far has manifested this ideal; it is in evolution through informal study of distinct cultures and their diverse expressions. To use creativity for the common good is the underlying ideal of my art and life. With these motivations in mind I have realized the central position of the artist in all societies, they are shaman and craftsman, famous and unsung, theirs is not a New York art scene, which takes the notion of value to the level of obscenity. The Artist peddles creativity, which is so fundamental and necessary to humanity as to be sometimes thought of as worthless or unnecessary, in other words, priceless. Creativity is central to humankind’s expression across the globe and is something that makes us human.

Joaquin Torres Garcia was a Uruguayan born artist who lived many lives between North America and Europe before returning to his country. Born in 1874 Torres-Garcia lived in his native Montevideo. Leaving for Spain at the age of seventeen, he proceeded to live in New York, the Mediterranean, Paris and Madrid, returning to Uruguay at the age of sixty. He was influenced by early Russian constructivists and eventually blended European influence with pre-Colombian American concepts and aesthetics. For Joaquin Torres Garcia, the symbol was a way of combining idea and form while bypassing narrative, which would interfere with the unity of the work. This was not an American version of the Russian Constructivist movement or the Bauhaus. His aim was to create a modern art for South America. The uniqueness of Torres-Garcia’s proposal consisted of his incorporation of essential elements of Indigenous American art into the basic principles of European constructivism and geometric abstraction. His conception of art had a metaphysical and spiritual dimension, a faith in the spiritual value of art as a creative act bound to a universal law.

His life and art culminated in his own Constructivist Manifesto, which sought to erase the line between art and life by creating an art and thought that where a unified quest for social justice. The idea that an artistic/social movement could exist as one is powerful. In his manifesto he questions the basic notions of consumption, materialism, empire, colony, all the while excusing himself to society.
“The concepts we are about to propose create a stumbling block for the generally realistic worldview of present-day man, but bear in mind we are dealing with a problem of art and that in such a field we may be excused or pardoned. For we, the artists and art lovers of today, should regard ourselves as marginal in terms of the rest of humanity -even while aspiring to be more human than ever.”

Torres-Garcia moved back to Uruguay at the age of sixty with his wife and children. At this point in his life he had a strong Art, which he was concerned would not be understood or accepted in Uruguay. Upon arriving he immediately began seeking interested artists to dialogue with, eventually, teaching a group of young artists, resulting in his school of Constructivist Art
The following is an excerpt from J. Torres Garcia’s Constructivist manifesto written in 1946:
-Individualism: outside the concept of man. A self-centered individual (outside of totality) is like a part without a harmonic relationship to the whole.
-Materialism: fragmented (partial, relative, accidental knowledge)
-Egocentrism: existence outside the universal, the dominant human state. Main activity: finances. (Everything else is subordinate)
-Abstract Man: The key. We must reinstate him. A temple, a poem a painting Manifest the universality of Abstract Man; In another time which came later a new spirit opposed the Individual against the Universal Man That is until NOW at the edge of the struggle: the affirmation of truth; Constructive Work (keep the seeds in a secure place) Abstain. Winter. Sleep

My interest in Garcia’s work and teachings is in its re-valorization of the Indigenous identity of the South American continent. His art and ideals are a tool of contrast to the current politics of globalization: a regime dedicated to continuing the mental and physical poverty of South America for eternity.

I am interested in things that transcend linear time and delve to the depths of humanity’s complex social organizations. In his day, Torres Garcia was unable to reach directly to the roots of South America's indigenous cultures, to those whose aesthetic he adapted. He may have idealized the Indigenous and abstracted their culture, but was unable to bridge the gap to the people themselves by means of common race language and education. Many European artists over time have adapted the aesthetic language of an ancient culture as an attempt to break past race barriers and into the universal.

NOW, at this current juncture in time and Space, I understand the opportunity as never before, to communicate between these opposing worldviews, to be able to articulate and give reason from each to the other. Human beings are always searching for basic truths, universal truths. The appeal of Torres-Garcia’s Universal Constructivism is obvious at this very moment when South America is under unprecedented pressure to assimilate to alien economic policies and values that go against its nature. Torres-Garcia’s ideal creates a framework ample enough to include rather than exclude,

A definition of Globalization: ‘a widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life, from the cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual’ (Held and McGrew 1999).

The socio-economic ladder in Latin America is stuck in the legacy of the Spanish conquest; crime; mental, spiritual and material poverty, and extreme governmental corruption. This is the setting of a struggle for life and land, which has gone on for over five hundred years. A struggle in which cultural self-esteem has been systematically corroded by hegemonic power structures. This corrosion creates extreme ideals such as improving the race, fed by the dominant society’s model of light skin and European ancestry. Indigenous people change their last names in order to pursue careers within the institutions that have traditionally excluded them.

I seek to construct my art in ways that allow it to exist as a basic tool with which to organize my world, not just adorn it. To me this is the true potential of sculpture, working within the same third dimensional plain as everyday human reality. There exists the possibility of elevating a sculpture to accessibility by bringing it down to the ground, in direct physical functionality with three-dimensional people. This metaphor of elevating art by bringing it down reacts from a disinterest in how art is consumed and the places it is confined to by those who purchase it. I reject art as mere entertainment to be consumed by people with money to spare. The type of objects a consumer art market demands, tend toward empathy with and apathy toward the purchasers of the art, and do not demand radical thinking or suggest alternative viewpoints or ideas. I do not mind if my art does not have my signature on it. I care more about what its function is in society, After it leaves my hands, what imprint does it creates in the space around it? Right now, a pattern I see in my work happens in combining the old with the new. I understand that nothing is really NEW, I understand that to me the highest ideals of art can seek only to remind, record and renew mankind’s continual struggle for improvement, justice and peace. As artists we must strive to transcend.

Post-colonial power structures control America’s third, fourth and first world societies. Something that interests me is how the powerful and powerless in Latin America both have specific advantages and can each exert their own distinct form of pressure upon the other. A visiting artist, Olav Westphelan once said to me “ the slave needs the master as the master needs the slave”. This statement really got me thinking about the intrinsic humanity in power relations, the strange fraternity of the oppressor and the oppressed in post-colonial power structures.
During Latin America's republican era, those Indigenous peoples treated as third class citizens were lucky. Most were treated as animals. The oppressor was very usually in the minority, yet his efficiency and psychology is still deeply etched into the minds of the people. The rebellions and wars, which freed Latin America from the Spanish crown, gave power to white European descendent oligarchies. Under this rule the Indigenous peoples suffered worse treatment. Globalization is as Colonialism was = a process which makes these peoples alien to their own land, a systematic exploitation of raw materials, labor and markets for surplus products. The oppressed are kept ignorant, poor and largely illiterate as a way to stop them from becoming politically active.

The notion of the modern Nation-State historically has excluded the Indigenous population from participating; this exclusion has culminated in various Indigenous/peasant revolutions all through central and South America. Rebellions since the colonial era in Peru and Bolivia are many, the Incan Quechua descendant Tupac Amaru in Cusco 1780, Tupac Katari an Aymara in Bolivia in 1781, the insurrection of Zarate Willka in 1899. After their 1952 revolution, Bolivia nationalized their lucrative tin and silver mines. During the 1950’s and 60’s Latin America fought and won many revolutions by the people against exploitation by the Republican era oligarchies. Thus was born land reforms, nationalizing industries and government programs aimed at incorporating these people into the nation. These advances gave power to the State to look after the interests of its own people and economy. This new philosophy, while by no means un-corrupt, was a foundation for democracy on the people’s terms.

The United States, through financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank controls the modern global economy. Their agenda keeps poor countries in check by advocating privatization of many government functions, making way for multi-national corporations, which will. It is thought that these corporations will run things more efficiently while also, eventually, bringing stable economic growth. This idea of a “trickle down” economy failed during the Reagan administration. The effect of this is an enormous widening of the gap between rich with an ever-increasing number of poor people. Globalization is involving people across the globe, far from the “Washington consensus” which dictates global economic policy, ironically; from the United States own capital, Washington, D.C. Under these policies, the very conditions for growth, which allowed the superpowers of Europe, the U.S., and Japan to grow strong economies, are not allowed to the modern poor nations, who are prevented from sheltering their economies with any subsidies, prevented from copying technology nationally. Those poor governments unable to subsidize their small agriculturists can’t compete with cheap imports from the subsidized agricultural sectors of the rich nations. Millions of poor farmers worldwide have been forced off their land and into impoverished urban economies. Once a country accepts debt-repayment loans from the aforementioned financial institutions, they are forced to adopt so called “structural adjustments”. These adjustments demand privatization of state run businesses and other policies, undercutting a government’s sovereignty in the interest of multi-national corporations. The situation also creates an atmosphere rife with the theft of Indigenous genetic and intellectual property. The resulting poverty and powerlessness in which these people are left challenges them to survive materially as well as culturally. The post-modern Neo-liberal economic models privatize the few government programs and assistance which the Indigenous majorities gained during the nineteen fifties and sixties. The economic models forced on poor Latin American nations create a new type of colonization in which Multi-National corporations are the new Spaniards.

Non-Profit NGO's (non governmental organization) are now beginning to work in spaces where the Nation-State cannot or will not take care of their citizenship. Governments abandon whole segments of the population to an increasing poverty. Global financers often politically maneuver these NGO’s, though many genuinely do “help” people. Help is a relative word, much of the problems among these societies have been done, indirectly or directly by the people who now offer assistance. The remedies often re-enforce the problems. People have great stakes in creating, maintaining and facilitating the power hegemonies of rich and poor. The food chain of global capital is obviously running us to the brink of a new threat to humanity. The Nation-State is decentralizing its power as neo-liberalization asks, in order to open up a total global $$ circuit in which we are all 20 billion of us happy consumers. This is interesting because according to the eminent Anarchist author, Paul Goodman, decentralization is exactly the condition he sees as necessary in order that the PEOPLE of the world could assume their own communal responsibilities from out of an egocentric, individualist system of exploitation.

With far different expectations, Neo-Liberalization also hopes to break apart the Nation-State in order to benefit multi-national corporations. That corporations would ever handle Humanity, humanitarian aid, warfare or “peacekeeping” even as badly as governments is a preposterous notion.

Weaving is truthfully just as complex as these other human ways of organizing. I have woven, since learning traditional weaving from my Aymara grandmother at age fifteen. A major obstacle for me in incorporating my weaving knowledge and tradition into the fine art context of the U.S. is the simple difference in perception of “art” and creativity by Western and non-Western cultures. Can you imagine a society based on communal rather than individual traditions? A situation where the artist and his or her creativity can be respected for its technique and virtuosity, yet quite possibly unknown outside their community? My grandmother for example, was well known in her community as an expert weaver. She was an artist, yet her art was functional and her creativity worked from within a traditional medium of weaving, actively supporting the community’s cultural values and symbols. Weaving has been of continuous interest to me, yet something I have tried to actively get away from in making fine art, because of my sense of responsibility to tradition. It is responsibility to the context and function of what I learned within the cultural framework as it was taught to me. Who am I to try to re-arrange a millennial textile tradition? I decided to stop avoiding the weaving in my work, because to me it is a lifelong process, an evolving metaphor to post-industrial North America as well as a living subsistence tradition amongst many Indigenous peoples worldwide. I kept my first weaving explorations at a purposeful distance from my tradition, using primarily materials salvaged from local remnants of America’s industrial waste. These looms occupy a sort of post-apocalyptic survivalist ideal. They are a recycling of cast off decay into functional bricolage weaving constructions. I have now had five experiences of weaving in public. I realize now that I have mostly shown hand weaving to people for whom it is an industrialized, consumed and forgotten action.

This audiences reaction to my work is to alien and other, my audience participates out of exoticism, which is the last thing I want. What I didn’t convey through weaving publicly in America is that weaving still functions as a cultural adhesive within indigenous contexts; this is a challenge of great proportion. Bridging huge gaps in space, time and acculturation, is becoming a life long pursuit. I have a long-term vision of weaving publicly in front of people who still do directly relate to it. In such situations it is often stigmatized as archaic or "non-progressive”. This has become a thread of thought and action that I now realize is coming full circle in my life. I do not claim to know the end result to the issues and experiences that motivate me. The work is not about solution or results as tangible objects; I believe it goes much deeper than that. I am learning my way toward an understanding and thus evolution of these ideals. I believe that right now is a time in my life to ask questions, to nurture my vision within a steady diet of provocative searching. Doing can only be successful after seeing. It might not happen today, or even next month. I am on guard against this waiting game becoming a block against action; I don’t expect a problem in that. I see my future as a connection point, a bridge between my particular cultural dichotomies. I have realized that the best "aid" I could bring to the Aymara is a global awareness, an inversion of my own experience. In meeting my cultural other I discovered myself. I distinctly feel that it begins there on the high Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia, which can teach me how to bring it back to North America.

Last semester I began working with earth, using the functional building techniques of the Aymara, I began producing adobe bricks. Bricks as well as weaving occupy a cross-cultural commonality and ultimate utility, much as the being woven or knitted cloths we wear, a lot of our world is made out of bricks. Tires were the final connector to uniting weaving with the adobe bricks. Weaving with recycled tire tubes and treads, using the bricks as resistance creates a visual and conceptual tension Tires are such an impoverished material once they are used for something other than their intended purpose. A little love and armor-all can always restore tires back to glossy dignity. Combining these three elements was a synthesis of longings, responsibilities and ideals. The works are both physical and metaphorical unions of cultures, languages, time and space; differences made similar.