Swarm Gallery is pleased to announce "THINGS ARE EXPANDING," an experimental group show on the theme of "collaboration." Paired with a sound installation in the project space by SF artist, Tamara Albaitis, we sought inspiration from musical collaborators Brian Eno and David Byrne. Both legendary musicians in their own right, they've said a lot about the process of collaboration:

"...Another reason to risk [collaboration] is that others often have ideas outside and beyond what one would come up with oneself. To have one's work responded to by another mind, or to have to stretch one's own creative muscles to accommodate someone else's muse, is a satisfying exercise. It gets us outside of our self-created boxes."

Successful collaboration can be likened to a color wheel. Complimentary colors are in striking contrast to each other; when juxtaposed, each appears brighter and more intense. The opposition between the two gives the combination more power than each element could achieve on its own.

The process: Swarm invited fourteen of its gallery artists to invite another artist of their choosing (from outside the gallery) to collaborate on a piece. We encouraged the artists to invite someone whose work they admire, but who works differently - either in medium, creative style, concept, or all of the above - to "stretch their creative muscles".

COME SEE WHAT THEY'VE DONE, opening with live music, performance and festivities:
Second Friday, December 10, 6PM

Project Space | TAMARA ALBAITIS

'Honey' (...you busy little bee, you!) starts with place, as with most Tamara's work. The particular place of the installation is in downtown Oakland: an industrial, raw, thriving city sitting on the threshold of one of the most influencial areas of the western United States. From there, one may look around the Bay Area and fathom at man's 'made' environment; we've built structures upon structures to create a modern life unthinkable a century ago. Some of this growth is monumentally astounding; a marvel of the advancement of man. Some of it is horrifically malignant like a death-bound cancer destroying everything natural alchemizing into concrete and plastic. We've manufactured new materials, created new systems worldwide and are rapidly multiplying our strength through technology. This strive for balance between machine-based contemporary life and our natural flesh and breath is a universal conondrum we all must deal with.

'Honey' is informed by this observation, created solely of man-made materials, replicating a nature-made phenoneum: the making of a honey-bee hive. The room will be full of audio wall drawings which will crawl through all aspects of the space: ceiling, floor, wall and interspace; pushing the notions of traditional drawing. In the middle will live the hive: buzzing and vibrating. Through the use of raw digital audio components such as audio wire, speaker cones and stereo amplifiers and the use of electrical energy (our modern-day honey), a dialogue between everyday systems is brought to light. How has our replication of the organic world, instigated by our primal forces, deviated from a more holistic evolution? How much more can we extend ourselves through the 'virtual'?