“Code Switching” Reception, October 25, 2007

The SF collective, Quorum (www.quorum-sf.org), had their reception at Swarm on Thursday. Members of the collective include SUSANNAH BETTAG, JORDAN ESSOE, RODNEY EWING, RAMAN FREY, RAYMOND HAYWOOD, ANDY DIAZ HOPE, ANDREW JUNGE, PAUL MADONNA, TREVOR PAGLEN, PRABA PILAR, TANIA KETENJIAN, MICHELE PRED, LAUREL ROTH, DOUGLAS SCHNEIDER, HARRY SITER, and Swarm Gallery owner SVEA LIN VEZZONE.

13 of the members were in the exhibit.

Linguists define “code-switching” as an alternation between two or more languages within a single conversation between people who have one or more language in common. What this means for most of us is that we participate in, and practice a type of verbal syntactic shape-shifting, frequently changing terms of speech and expression to accommodate the fluctuating needs of discourse within different social and cultural interactions. Often an unconscious act, code-switching is used for many purposes, including protection, identification, recognition, approval, and control.

With this exhibition, Quorum artists address these aspects of code-switching, exploring when and where the switch occurs and why the switch happens.

Code Switching Reception

Lovely Tania Ketenjian and Laurel Roth, right

Decoding Michele Pred’s semacode piece

Rodney Ewing, holding child

Michele Pred talking with Praba Pilar

Praba (left) and friends

Hank Thomas (right) and friend

Trevor Paglen and Raman Frey (right)

Rodney’s installation “Days and Occasions”