Kalpa time
Hirokazu Kosaka manipulates a set of prints from an ongoing community-based project called "Ruin Map" in Los Angeles, Seattle and Pennsylvania. As part of Ruin Map, participants are invited to draw from memory the site of their childhood. The artist then transforms the drawings into traditional woodblock prints on handmade paper.
Come to Montalvo to enjoy the exhibit before it ends July 5.
I volunteer to host the gallery at Project Space, the art gallery at Villa Montalvo. In this Project Space exhibit, the original woodblock prints are given new life and new meaning by the artist through the addition of thousands of poppy seeds. Kosaka's use of poppy seeds refers to a story told by Buddha to explain the principle of kalpa. Kalpa is a Sanskrit word meaning aeon, or long period of time. In Buddha's account of kalpa, a huge empty cube measuring sixteen miles on each side is formed at the beginning of kalpa. Once every 100 years a tiny poppy seed is placed in the cube and yet the cube is not filled before the kalpa ends. By adding poppy seeds to these prints, Kosaka builds a symbolic parallel between kalpa and the inevitable passage of time that slowly transforms our lives, our histories and our memories.

Come on up to the gallery at Montalvo. It is unbelievably gorgeous here and the art is fantastic.