The Hyperbolic Crochet Cactus Garden

At the WIGNAL MUSEUM - CHAFFEY COLLEGE
Exhibition Dates: January 29 - March 1, 2008

Wignall Museum - Chaffey College
5885 Haven Avenue Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91737

"Indefiniteness in form, size and number is the character of the plant, although a law lies at the basis of all this." Lorenz Oken, 1824.

In Jan-Feb 2008 the Wignall Museum at Chaffey College presents the exhibition Inlandia, a group show that explores the unique cultural landscape of the LA-area hinterland, the Inland Empire. The Institute For Figuring is proud to be part of this exhibition where our Crochet Cactus Garden will be on display. Works in the Inlandia show have been selected because of their relevance to the social, political and environmental conditions of the Inland Empire, Southern California's fastest growing region. The Crochet Cactus Garden is itself a group work, curated by IFF Directors Margaret and Christine Wertheim, incorporating pieces by 10 collaborators from around the world. The Garden was inspired by the desert landscapes of California. Inlandia is curated for the Wignall Museum by Rebecca Trawick.

The impetus for this project was to evoke in wool the delicate wonder of living cactii. The forms on show here were inspired by real desert ecologies, and by the techniques of hyperbolic crochet developed by mathematician Dr Daina Taimina at Cornell University. Like living cactii, crochet cactii are found in a dazzling variety of "species." Although the processes that produce these pieces are algorithmic, every individual crafter who comes to the project brings to bear on the age-old forms of nature their own asthetic powers.

In Rialto, CA, Shari Porter has been constructing pebble-like forms. In Cedar Hill, Texas, Evelyn Hardin has discovered the delights of felting, using variegated soy yarns; in Bendigo, Australia, Marianne Midelburg has combed thrift stores, turning discarded wools into undulating piles; in Culver City, Sarah Simons, has concocted an entire taxonomy of cactus flowers by mixing together mercerized cottons in subtly complimentary hues. In Los Angeles, Anitra Menning reigns as the queen of vegetable architectonics, crafting swooping marvels at once fuzzy and firm, while David Orozco (proprietor of That Yarn Store in Echo Park) specializes in flanges of green and grey, a predisposition shared by Spring Pace in the wilderness of Topanga Canyon. In Bonnie Doon in rural Australia, Helen Bernasconi spins and dyes her own wool before designing mathematically precise clusters. It all comes together in Highland Park, where Margaret and Christine Wertheim curate, assemble and crochet to round out the whole.

IFF Crochet Cactus Garden Crafters:

Christine Wertheim (Los Angeles, CA)

Margaret Wertheim (Los Angeles, CA)

Sarah Simons (Culver City, CA)

Evelyn Hardin (Cedar Hill, TX)

Marianne Midelburg (Bengido, Australia)

Helen Bernasconi (Bonnie Doon, Australia)

Anitra Menning (Los Angeles, CA)

Spring Pace (Topanga Canyon, CA)

David Orozco (Echo Park, CA)

Shari Porter (Rialto, CA)

The Crochet Cactus Project has been assisted by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.