VIDEO: Container Man

A mound of granite blocks in a former Acton quarry is being transformed into a mass of figurative sculptures. Accomplished with great skill and deep thought, this collaborative work is one of many projects underway at the Contemporary Arts International (CAI), founded in 1999 and launched in 2010.

CAI president/director Yin Peet and artistic director Viktor Lois (pronounced Loys), both sculptors, share a vision for the CAI. This non profit offers an annual summer symposium with invited artists who create sculptures for new art archeology, tours and events, artistic collaborations, and classes, including several that are accredited by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Lois told the Acton Patch, "A thousand years from now, we hope that someone finds art on this site."

This Veteran's Day, Peet, an American citizen who was born in Taiwan, and Lois,  a Hungarian, will be donating a granite sculpture to the town of Acton. Peet said, "(Viktor) and I are both from outside of America. This piece is our heart to America."

Carved by both Peet and Lois, this sculpture features a flag with an eagle whose head protrudes from the relief. Lois hopes that someday the eagle's head will shine from years of touch by Acton citizens. He comments, "I want people to touch the eagle's head. It's four feet from the ground. It will the guide the people - (with) some kind of wish or promise."

Different Paths Join

Lois is a big, talkative man with big ideas. His is a self taught artist who transforms recycled home goods—typewriters, washing machines, bicycles—into kinetic sculptures with sound. For almost 40 years, Lois was well known in Europe as an artist, curator, and director. According to Lois, he opened the first private gallery in Hungary during its Communist era.

Peet, an academic, is physically smaller and more contained than Lois. She earned a BA in English literature from Soochow University in Taipei City, and an MFA in sculpture from MassArt. She's an adjunct professor at the College of the Holy Cross. Peet's first focus was Chinese traditional art: calligraphy, painting, seal carving, and mini-sculpture. Now she creates large-scale figurative sculptures of humans.

Peet and Lois met at the Andres Institute of Arts in Brookline, New Hampshire in 2000. Two years later, they collaborated in Taiwan on a large-scale musical piece called Container Man. It was Peet's vision, and Lois's mechanical skills that brought together this truck-size piece of art. Peet said, "I looked around the world for a collaborator. When I saw Viktor, I knew the he was the one."

Lois and Peet interrupt each other’s stories, and sometimes disagree. But together, they share a vision for the CAI, and they are moving towards their goal. The CAI is a place of creation, study, display, and innovation.

For a photo-gallery of the Contemporary Arts International (CAI),

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