COUNTERCULTRUAL STUPAS

The series ‘Stupas for a Counterculture of Self-Realization’ utilize books and ephemera found at second-hand shops throughout Los Angeles to discuss alternative paths toward awakening. I see thrift stores as fascinating repositories that reveal a local ‘collective unconscious’ through objects. I peruse these troves to find books that delve into questions of the unknown and chart a chronology of the city—many were published here in small editions and retain notations or ephemera from each reader’s journey. These items evince the past and presence of Los Angeles’s seekers of new futures.