The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) will hold an opening reception and book signing for “The Toltec I Ching: 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World”. The book is the result of combining two indigenous cultures, ancient Mexican (known as Toltec) and Chinese. I-Ching expert, William Douglas Horden collaborated with artist and Nahuatl expert, Martha Ramirez-Oropeza to create this unique perspective on important cultural traditions/contributions.
The exhibit features 64 original oil paintings by visual artist, Martha Ramirez-Oropeza, which were created specifically/based on these two traditions.
Martha Ramirez-Oropeza, currently an Artist-in-Resident at SPARC is a visual artist/educator and practitioner of the Nahuatl tradition. Martha has been apprenticed under master muralist David A. Siquieros, Guillermo Monroy and most recently, Judy Baca. She was also a performer with the Mascarones Theatre Group in Mexico and co-founder of the Nahuatl University in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Author and I-Ching scholar, William Douglas Horden has more than thirty years’ experience with ancient divination systems of China and Mexico. Horden states:
“These are two great indigenous cultures who share a common mother culture. They inherited many lessons from their mother culture and so share similar worldviews. One of the most distinguishing features they share is a core belief in divination. Although they developed differently structured divinatory systems (13 x 20 = 260 & 8 x 8 = 64), they share a common devotion to highly structured divinatory systems. In both cases, these systems appeared at the arising of their respective civilizations and became repositories of their cultures’ wisdom teachings. It is the lessons from those wisdom teachings that we have incorporated into “The Toltec I Ching”. There are many perfectly good versions of the I Ching using Chinese symbols. But those symbols are not familiar to those of us in the Americas. We wanted to show the similarities between the two philosophies by re-introducing the I Ching using the symbols from the ancient Toltecs”.
Details
Location: SPARC
685 Venice Blvd. (one block west of Oakwood)
Venice, CA 90291
Date: Sunday, July 12, 2009
Time: 2pm-5pm
Books will be for sale and private readings will be available on a first-come, first-served basis
About SPARC:
Founded in 1976 by muralist Judy Baca, filmmaker Donna Deitch and artist Christina Schlesinger. SPARC is dedicated to creating, producing, presenting and preserving public artworks in neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles and ensuring that indigenous voices are heard through a collaborative art making process.
