Tamara Albaitis created the buzzing hive centerpiece for the Swarm Gallery where queen bee/director Svea Lin Soll directed the busy workers, her artists, to collaborate to create something greater than themselves. The exhibit, which opened Friday, comes from the inspiration for collaboration by former Talking Head David Bryne and Brit glam rocker Brian Eno.
Tamara brought to life an electronic bee hive installation she calls Honey, for which she recorded actual living buzzing French Swiss bees she recorded while she was in residence in France. A friend’s family operated a bee hive and she recorded the bees herself.
No I think I heard a Belgian, said a young musician visiting the electronic hive.
You catch more flies with honey, I always say.
More than with vinegar, Yves Parent said.
Friday night he and I were collaborating on this article about collaboration. It was a beautiful still winter night at Jack London Square. I had waited for him after sunset at the Amtrak station, for him to arrive with his bicycle.
Little did he and I know then we were destined for our first fight by Sunday afternoon. Actually it would carry over into sailing and how taking the dinghies out with different sailors would help each of us learn different things. So. He happily raised a gennaker on his trip with a senior sailor to Treasure Island; I learned from junior sailor Camille how to save a man overboard and to find wind when there appeared to be none. One needs to be gentle and patient and just tip the boat to quietly fill the sail. Apres sail, Yves and I made up over Trader Joe’s hotdogs and cheap beer, cheaper than coke, said Yves.
Going outside your comfort zone
Meanwhile. Svea said toYves and me that she wanted the young, emerging artists to stretch boundaries and to work outside their comfort zone. Tamara literally worked outside hers as she donned lots of protective, bee-proof gear to get near the hive for her recording.
It’s all about energy and synergy, said Tamara in the womb like dark meditative little room with vines of live wires climbing the walls. Some live audio wire mixed with drawings, the whispers of live wires. No focal point, she pointed out.
I just geek out on relationships, she told me. I myself majored in sociology at Berkeley, 1977 – 1982.
Tamara seemed to be referring to mutual dependence or symbiotic relationships in nature. Yves wanted to know if the exhibit was interactive and would react to his movement about the hive. I found it to have a subconscious religious or hypnotic element, as in religious chanting, particularly that of Buddhists.
David Bryne and Brian Eno as inspiration for collaboration
So Svea instructed her artists to invite one artist of choice from outside the hive or gallery. The only theme would be collaboration and she consulted David Byrne of Creative Works and his collaborator Brian Eno on the subject, as the two musicians have collaborated successfully via email, exchanging music files between New York and London.
Former Talking Head David Bryne recently published The Bicycle Diaries and came to SF’s Herbst Theater to speak about his minglings with the people of the world via his bicycle. He’s also created fantastic artwork in the form of bike racks in New York, in silver shapes such as a dollar sign for Wall Street, a guitar, a shoe. It’s on Youtube.
Robin, a colleague of Svea’s at the gallery, said Bryne’s daughter also volunteers at Creative Growth and so does one of the colleagues at Swarm Gallery. Miriam, another Swarm colleague, is a bicycle commuter and wore red socks to the opening. She mentioned the Long Now Foundation, with whom Brian Eno associates.
Sound references
Svea told Yves and me that one pair of artists designed and made their own collection of speakers which emitted the sound of crickets, collaborating on the concept of the design. Lists at $2850, probably the most expensive piece in the show.
Another artist’s wife wrote lyrics and they set the same lyrics to hip hop, opera, country—all the same lyrics but different music.
The collaborative teams with different degrees of success
Another pair did two beautiful Eastern etchings on industrial mylar in pastels and black. One started each piece and then they switched to finish each other’s work. Erik and Emma’s “Collision and Illogic” list at $650 each. Gouache and pen on duralene.
Another pair out of Portland, Oregon, Wendy and Tia, told each other over the phone of each other’s bucolic country childhood home. They drew each other’s home from that oral description and then posted actual photographs next to the conceptions. Interestingly each conception looked like a happy home, a pastoral setting. The creations list at $250 each.
In contrast. One pair of women, one in Brooklyn, collaborated on a science fiction animation piece, completely imaginary but using images off the internet which the women discussed by phone. Kathy and Eve, the young women, met at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. This collaboration involved the story of an interstellar agent seeking a certain stone on Earth. There are references to nuclear waste and the question of where it is. Eve has taken photos of missle silos.
The name of the stone comes from the real stone used in making Napoleon’s tomb, porphyry. Eve and Kathy spell it backwards to name the stone in their story—yryhprop.
Another New York based pair used ink and graphite on paper to create fantasy birds and the two exchanged the drawings and finished each other’s work. Casey erased the eye of a bird; Frank drew a tree and bird in Casey’s landscape. I thought they had the darkest piece in the show, hints of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. $1100.
One of the more successful pairings of collaborators were friends before they began, one a ceramicist and another who draws, John and Derek. They created a bust about embracing thoughts, with hands painted on the face and around the chest as if in a hug. It too is a happy piece with floral embellishments and a butterfly.
Yves’ favorite piece is a whimsical creation of the bottom half of a prancing horse and the top half a bouquet of colorful feathers. Although it’s officially untitled I called it horsefeathers, the equivalent of Yves use of the saying, my eye. This mixed media piece lists at $450, by Laura and Kirk.
A puddle on the floor with fall leaves in it goes for $1200 and Yves seemed pretty entertained by this as it made for good people-watching. He took a photo of us standing at it’s edge with our shoes in the photo but not the puddle.
The most affordable collaboration would be the $10 chocolate “You’ll Log”, created by an artist who normally sketches with graphite on wood to look like steel. He collaborated with a chocolate factory, Schurra’s Chocolates.
Svea says the whole project took 2 ½ months. Some pairings were more successful than others. Some had too much trouble working together as they were used to working alone. Some created things pretty similar to what they were used to doing, close to the comfort zone.
Americana
Yves and I found some whimsical takes on Americana in a little brightly lit alcove. A wooden ice-cream truck but looking twisted like one out of South Park, by Jake Watling. Yves thought this particularly American as ice-cream trucks were not allowed in his community in Montreal as they valued peace and quiet above such novelty. As we discussed this we could hear the real Amtrak train roll by outside the gallery, heading for the station in Jack London Square.
We also looked at the paper mustaches of some famous faces like a 1970s Glenn Frey at $200, by Gina Tuzzi. Other Americana included a hanging lamp made from a tin of Ritz crackers by Leslie Tilley. Speaking of things that hang, one young artist made a noose out of beautiful yarn.
Svea mentioned how it’s still a struggle for emerging artists so her gallery is pragmatic, renting studio space in back. She mentioned the Blue Chip market remains active, the upper end, the millionaires.
Surviving a life in the arts
Svea’s survival skill she says is remaining versatile. You must be independently wealthy to be a gallery owner or be really savvy. Her business skills seem to go with her body as she is an agile one, a tall lithe former dancer who performed the Brazilian dance capoeira for six years. She also likes Cuban and Latin dancing such as salsa. She plays the violin and likes to cook.
So Yves and I peered through the glass walls as if the studios were museum exhibits too. He, being a former contractor who painted, enjoyed how one artist painted a picture of a beautiful antique wooden window that even sloped at the bottom pane and showed two coats of paint, the old one underneath revealed as the top coat wore off.
We saw work by a marine biologist, Cleo Vilett, including a little sailboat, sea turtles, a dramatic burst of color in an iris painting, done with several thin layers of paint.
Another had portraits of Black jazz musicians.
Another worked in dangling plastics.
French champagne, live band, cupcakes and piglets in blankets
Another seemed to love French champagnes and wines and had collages of the French labels, making Yves and I wonder about the full bottles they may have come from.
Paula LeDuc catered the event although did not bake the items, teensy mini pigs in blankets with a squirt of barbeque sauce, two for a dollar; and pretty cupcakes.
An ensemble of young musicians performed with guitar and violin, led by Joey Mintz, who played bass and percussion.
Things are Expanding shows through January 16, 2011. Swarm Gallery, 560 Second Street, Oakland, California 94607. (510) 472-7930. Jack London Square a block from Yoshi’s and across from Cost Plus.
Epilogue: It’s Tuesday. Yves and I remain friends. Same as it ever was.
He and I recently collaborated on a review of Lemony Snicket's new play The Composer is Dead. Don't call them puppets, they are marionettes.
Lemony Snicket's new puppet play The Composer is Dead childlike and quirky
For more information: www.swarmgallery.com
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