Exhibitions

CURRENT:

The Crochet Coral Reef is constantly on display. See here for current, future, and past exhibitions of the Crochet Coral Reef.

PAST:

PLASTIC ENTANGLEMENTS: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials
@ Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison
September 13, 2019 – January 5, 2020

@ Smith College Museum of Art, New Hampshire
February 8 – July 28, 2019

@ Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon
September 22 – December 30, 2018

@ Palmer Art Museum, University of Pennsylvania
February 13 – June 17th, 2018 

TRADE MARKINGS: Frontier Imaginaries Ed. No. 5
@ Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
April 7 – July 1, 2018

EXPLODE EVERY DAY: An Inquiry into the Phenomenon of Wonder
@ MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
May 28, 2016 – February 28, 2017

Crochet Coral Reef
@ the University of California, Santa Cruz
February 10 – May 6, 2017

Crochet Coral Reef
@ Museum of Arts and Design, New York
September 15, 2016 – January 22, 2017

Night Begins the Day
@ the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
June 18 – Sept 20, 2015

Crochet Coral Reef
@ Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX
February 12 – April 26, 2015

Crochet Coral Reef
@ New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, UAE
September 28 – December 5, 2014

making space
@ Google Venice Offices, Los Angeles
October 2013 – February 2014

Science + Art Residency:  Being Formed
@ Institute For Figuring, Los Angeles
July – December, 2013

An Alternative Guide to the Universe
@ Hayward Gallery, London
June 11 – August 26, 2013

Out of Fashion
@ GL Holtegaard Museum, Copenhagen
April 2013 – Jan 2014

making space
@ Institute For Figuring, Los Angeles
December 15, 2012 – June 29, 2013

Physics on the Fringe
@ Institute For Figuring, Los Angeles
April 14 – November 10, 2012

Mosely Snowflake Sponge Exhibition
@ The USC Libraries
September 20, 2012 – January 30, 2013

Midden Project
@ The New Children's Museum, San Diego, CA
October 15, 2011 –September 15, 2013

The Logic Alphabet of Shea Zellweger
@ The Museum of Jurassic Technology
Opening reception March 3, 2007 – March 3, 2012

IFF
@ The Walker Art Center
April 24 – September 29, 2009

Inventing Kindergarten
@ Art Center College of Design, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
October 13, 2006 – January 7, 2007

Hyperbolic Cactus Garden + Hyperbolic Kelp Garden
@ Fair Exhange, during the LA County Fair, Pomona Fairgrounds
September 8 – October 1, 2006

The Business Card Menger Sponge
@ Machine Project, Los Angeles
Los Angeles – August 26 – September 24, 2006

Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane
@ Machine Project, Los Angeles
Los Angeles – July 2005

Philosophical Toys
@ Apex Art, New York
June/July 2005

Lithium Legs and Apocalyptic Photons
@ The Santa Monica Museum of Art
April 20 – June 9, 2002

 

Crochet Coral Reef Exhibitions

Hyperbolic: Reefs, Rubbish, and Reason
@ The Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
June 6 – August 21, 2011

Crochet Reef
@ The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
October 16, 2010 – April 24, 2011

Crochet Reef
@ The Science Gallery, Dublin
March 20, 2010 – June 11, 2010

The IFF "Bleached Reef"
@ The National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt, NYC
May 14, 2010 – January 9, 2011

Crochet Cactus Garden
Jackson Hole, WY
June 26 – September 28, 2009

Crochet Reef
Scottsdale, AZ
April 11 – July 11, 2009

Crochet Reef Show
@ Track 16 in Los Angeles
Jan 10 – Feb 28, 2009

New York and Chicago Reefs
Staten Island
Sept 27 – Dec 20, 2008

UK Reef Tour
Autumn 2008

Plastic Exploding Inevitable Reef
San Francisco
Sept 7 – Oct 3, 2008

Crochet Reef Symposium
@ Southbank Center
Friday June 13, 2008

Crochet Reef
London
June 11 – August 17, 2008

Crochet Reef
New York
April 6 – May 18, 2008

The Crochet Cactus Garden
@ The Wignall Museum, Chaffey College
January 29 – March 1, 2008

The Crochet Cactus Garden
@ The David Weinberg Gallery
October 26 – December 29, 2007

The Crochet Coral Reef
@ The Chicago Cultural Center
October 13 – December 16, 2007

The Crochet Coral Reef
@ The Andy Warhol Museum
March 11 – June 17, 2007

 

 

AN ALTERNATIVE GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE
@ Hayward Gallery, London

June 11 – August 26, 2013

This summer the Hayward Gallery in London is showcasing the work of visionary outsiders in art, science, engineering and architecture with a mind-expanding exhibition titled An Alternative Guide to the Universe

IFF Director Margaret Wertheim has curated the section on outsider physics, which features the work of James Carter (hero of her book Physics on the Fringe, and fabulous models of subatomic particles by newly discovered, Pasadena-based, "quantum geometry" theorist Philip Blackmarr. 

Carter and Blackmarr appear in the "Beautiful Theories" part of the exhibition, devoted to thinkers who propose alternative ways of understanding the physical world. Accompanying the show is a lavish catalog, to which Margaret has contributed an essay.

About An Alternative Guide to the Universe
From the Hayward Gallery website:

Alternative Guide to the Universe surveys an artistic landscape that stretches to the far horizons of our imagination. Featuring contributions from self-taught artists and unlicensed architects, fringe physicists and visionary inventors, it serves up bracingly fresh perspectives on the world we live in. It also offers a rare opportunity to discover remarkable paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography and architectural models created by an eccentric and inspiring group of individuals from around the world. 
Alternative Guide to the Universe focuses on individuals who develop their ideas and practices outside of official institutions and established disciplines. Their work ingeniously departs from accepted ways of thinking in order to re-imagine the rules of culture and science. Some of their speculative visions rival the wildest inventions of science fiction – with the difference that these practitioners believe in the validity and veracity of all that they describe and propose. 

Many of these mavericks make work that aspires to be practical or that explores the nature of empirical reality. They create plans for vast cities of the future; alternative calendars and languages; diagrams that track evolutionary networks of consciousness; and photographic portraits that question our notions of ‘self’. Whether speculating on mysteries of time and space or charting the unseen energy flows of our bodies and minds, their startlingly imaginative conceptions invite the viewer into a universe where ingenuity trumps received wisdom. In the process, it vastly expands the spaces in which our own imaginative thinking about the world may venture. 


Diagram from Jim Carter's theory of "circlon synchronicity", showing the formation of subatomic particles.

Jim Carter's work was first exhibited by the IFF in 2002 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in the seminal show "Lithium Legs and Apocalyptic Photons", and again in 2012 at the IFF Los Angeles as part of our exhibition "Physics on the Fringe." The Hayward exhibition is the first public presentation of Philip Blackmarr's work, which will be coming to the IFF Los Angeles in 2014.

James Carter
b. 1944, Seattle, WA; lives in Enumclaw, WA
After abandoning his university studies to search for a long-lost meteorite, James Carter has spent the last fifty years developing an alternative theory of everything. Carter’s bright, exquisitely detailed drawings, prints and animations illustrate his most radical theories, including his belief gravity is an illusion. Things only appear to fall, he insists, while in reality the earth is falling ‘up’, due to the fact that it doubles in size every 19 minutes.


Philip Blackmarr holding his model of the nucleus of an iron atom, constructed from folded paper components.

Philip Blackmarr
b. 1945, Mobile, AL; lives in Pasadena, CA
For forty years, Philip Blackmarr has been developing a theory of matter based on his belief that all material structure must arise from subatomic units configured into geometric patterns. Calling his theory ‘quantum geometry’, Blackmarr proposes that matter is composed from octahedral units that he associates with the electron. Other, heavier, particles are composed from hundreds or thousands of these units arranged in complex 3-D lattices. To illustrate his ideas, Blackmarr has crafted models of these particles out of thousands of tiny octahedrons, each precisely folded into shape.


Diagram of electromagnetic wave formation as described by the theory "quantum geometry" by Philip Blackmarr.


Diagram of "quantum geometry" explanation of subatomic particles by Philip Blackmarr.