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Exhibitions Report On The Crochet Reef Exhibition At The Hayward Gallery Crochet Reef Symposium at Southbank Center Crochet Reef Showing in London Crochet Reef Showing in New York The Hyperbolic Crochet Cactus Garden at the Wignall Museum - Chaffey College The Hyperbolic Crochet Cactus Garden at the David Weinberg Collection The Crochet Coral Reef At The Chicago Cultural Center The Crochet Coral Reef At The Andy Warhol
Museum The Logic Alphabet of Shea Zellweger Inventing Kindergarten Hyperbolic Cactus Garden + Hyperbolic Kelps The Business Card Menger Sponge Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane Philosophical Toys Lithium Legs and Apocalyptic Photons
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REPORT ON THE CROCHET REEF EXHIBITION AT THE HAYWARD | |||
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| The Crochet Reef at The Hayward Gallery | ||||
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The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef exhibition opened at The Hayward Project Space on June 11th, 2008. The exhibition is the loveliest and most complex incarnation of the project to date and we are delighted to acknowledge all the Contributors whose work collectively makes this such a wondrous show - proof that the whole really can be more than the sum of its parts. List of Contributors to The Hayward exhibition: Christine Wertheim, Margaret Wertheim, Sarah Simons, Evelyn Hardin, Dr Axt, Helen Bernasconi, Marianne Midelburg, Helle Jorgensen, Barbara Wertheim, Daina Taimina, Heather McCarren, Anitra Menning, Clare O'Callaghan, Shari Porter, Vonda N. McIntyre, Ildiko Szabo, Inga Hamilton, Rebecca Peapples, Sue Von Ohlsen, Nancy Lewis, Kathleen Greco, Aviva Alter, Catherine Chandler, Pate Conaway, Kristine Brandel, Cindy Bennish, Nadia Severns, Arlene Minzter; with Paula Peng, Allie Gerlach, Spring Pace, David Orozco, Karen Frazer, Karen Page, Lynn Latta, Diana Simons, Barbara Robinson, Jill Schrier, Dagmar Frinta, Njoya Angrum, Barbara Van Elsen, Pamela Stiles, Jessica Stapp, Kat Ramsland, Barbara Wakesfield, Amber Reyes, Ranu Mukherjee's class at CCA, Katie Bevan, Rosie Sykes, Refia Sacks, Beverly Griffith, Anita Bruce, and Sien Chu Kerk. Plus 100 women of the UK who contributed to the UK Reef. A list of these names will be available here soon. |
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Dr Axt's "Reefer Madness" hanging above the stairs in the entrance to The Hayward. |
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Highlights of the exhibition include: - Dr Axt's wondrous "Reefer Madness", hanging in the entranceway
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| The Plastic Exploding Inevitable Reef with pink plastic Jelly-Yarn "sand" by Kathleen Greco and white spires crocheted from cotton and stiffened with glue by Evelyn Hardin, plus bottle anemones made from craft-lace by Evelyn and Christine and beaded yarn anemones by Sarah Simons. | ||||
The exhibition has received excellent press, including features in The Guardian, The Times, New Scientist and Craft Magazine. - The Guardian - The Times (London) - Craft Magazine - New Scientist - The Times (London) article on Dr Daina Taimina |
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| Nadia Severn's Bottle Tree Garden - made from plastic water bottles (including Perrier and Dasani) encrusted with hyperbolic crochet corals. | ||||
| With this exhibition we welcome to the Reef Project several new UK Contributors whose works were incorporated into The Hayward show in situ: Katy Bevan (of the UK Craft Council), Anita Bruce (a fiber artist who has just completed her BFA and makes the most incredible crochet sea creatures from scientific wire), Rosy Sykes (a master of the anemone form), Refia Sacks (who crocheted tiny hyberbolic corals from silver jeweler's wire), and Beverly Griffith (another anemone innovator who works equally fluidly in yarn and plastic). | ||||
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| The brand new Red Reef with a large coral pile by Cindy Bennish and Anitra Menning. At right is a pilar coral cluster by Christine Wertheim and at left a grove of coral spires by Evelyn Hardin. Each itteration of the Crochet Reef exhibition demands significant re-curation. In this case curators Margaret and Christine completely reworked the various sub-reefs of what we have previously called the Ladies Silurian Reef. This time round we clustered it into a Red Reef, a Green and Purple Reef, an Orange and White and Blue Reef, and an Orange and Black Reef (which features a grove of large anemones with video tape tentacles.) | ||||
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| The main gallery room at The Hayward exhibition. In the foreground is the Red Reef. Behind is the Rubbish Vortex, crocheted from used plastic shopping bags by Australian Contributor Helle Jorgensen. The IFF commissioned this work from Helle in late 2006 and we are delighted to be able to exhibit its final, stunning, realization here. At its base the Vortex appears to be growing out of the floor from a network of coral-colored roots or arteries. Its shadow on the back wall eerily evokes a mushroom cloud - an unintended reminder of the devastation of Bikini Atoll and a nice resonance with the IFF's Toxic Reef on exhibition in the adjacent space in Royal Festival Hall. | ||||
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| The Red Reef, with sea slugs by Marianne Midelburg at left and a large branched anemone form by Christine Wertheim and tall white spires by Evelyn Hardin. Glimpsed in the background is the Orange and Blue Reef with a grove of pale pink pilar corals by Heather McCarren. | ||||
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| In the main gallery is also a marvelous collection of what we have come to call "Chicago Cambrian" forms by fiber artist Aviva Alter. After coming to an IFF workshop in the Windy City (where we taught her to crochet), Aviva set off on her own evolutionary path and quickly developed a whole new genera of crochet reef organisms. These chimeric, hybrid, morphing constructions call to mind the seminal period in the history of life on earth known as the Cambrian Explosion, around 500 million years ago. Aviva is now working with a small group of fellow Chicagoans (Jessica Stapp, Kat Ramsland, Barbara Wakesfield, Amber Reyes, Catherine Chandler), to expand her techniques and bring into being a new Chicago Cambrian Reef. | ||||
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| The Bleached Reef, Margaret's curatorial triumph. In The Hayward, the Bleached Reef and Beaded Reef are exhibited in a small separate room just beyond the main gallery. Darkened and lit with small spot lights this chapel-like space has been dubbed the Beautiful Holy Jewel Grotto. Fine perspex cases lend these exhibits the immediate feel of being in an aquarium, while watery reflections bouncing off the surface add to this illusion. In the background are two exquisite octopus forms by UK Contributor Anita Bruce. Next to the wall text is a delicate piece of fire coral by Helle Jorgensen. Features of the Bleached Reef include a gorgeous white and red sea slug by Marianne Midelburg, piles of rubble coral by Margaret and Christine, a wondrous rock-coral pile by Nancy Lewis, Heather McCarren's set of tiny orange pseudospheres, Sarah Simons beaded welk egg cases, Helle's coral pieces and sea urchins and sea cucumbers, and at front a pile of crochet balls by unknown Chinese factory workers. | ||||
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| The Beaded Reef, with masterworks by Sue Von Ohlsen and Rebecca Peapples. This exquisite reef is composed from beaded hyperbolic pieces by Sue and Rebecca, both master beaders who realized, after reading the IFF's book about hyperbolic crochet, that they could make these forms using traditional beading techniques. Sue uses peyote stitch to make stunning psuedospheres in graduated metalic beads - the large bluish and greenish forms are hers. Rebecca works with herringbone stitch to make tiny, impossibly delicate forms that look as if they have come from the imagination of a Byzantine queen. The orange florets are hers - these are actually psuedospheres with long trailing tails. This photo does not do justice to all this improbable beauty and we hope to present much better images soon. | ||||
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| Lacework octopii by Anita Bruce, crocheted from fine wire (at left) and fine string (at right). | ||||
In addition to the works in the The Hayward Project Space, the IFF's plastic extravaganza the Toxic Reef is also exhibited in an adjacent building of the Southbank Centre in the foyer of Royal Festival Hall. This time the Toxic Reef has been configured in a giant ziggurat formation that calls to mind the ecstatic frenzy of a voodoo alter. Alongside the Toxic Reef is the brand new UK Reef, constructed by the citizens of the UK over the past 4 months. More than 100 Engish and Irish women and a few men have contributed to this work under the able guidance of Cathy Woolley for the Southbank Center and Katy Bevan for The Crafts Council. |
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| The UK Reef, seen in the foyer of Royal Festival Hall. | ||||
| The UK Reef, seen above, is unique in its structure, for in this instance all the crochet pieces are attached to giant "reef balls" that simulate the actual concrete reef balls used to help regenerate devastated reefs. This marvelous innovation was dreamed up by Cathy Woolley, who worked with local London sculptors to realize the vision. | ||||
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| The UK Reef, detail. Above is the largest reef-ball partially covered in crochet plastic corals. On top are a collection of anemone forms made by Lucinda Ganderton, Beverly Griffiths and Rosy Sykes. The orange color comes from plastic shopping bags from Sainsbury's and Okada (a grocery shopping delivery service in the UK); the lime green comes from Marks and Spencers bags. Much of the lime green here is made by Liverpool Contributor Ildiko Szabo. Over the course of the exhibition, more participants will continue to add new forms to these balls, so that hopefully by the end of the show this structure will be entirely covered, in an organic process that mimics the regeneration of corals on actual reef-balls. | ||||
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| The UK Reef, detail. Here is a close-up of one of the smaller reef-ball structures covered with amazing flouro corals by Ildiko. Ildiko is one of the IFF's very first reef contributors and one of the most inventive form-makers. Here we see a grove of her anemones, with feather-boa fringing. | ||||
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| The Toxic Reef, with white pilars by Evelyn Hardin, saran-wrap anemones by Pate Conaway, giant orange corals by Christine Wertheim, pink curlicue patch by Ildiko Szabo, orange nets by Margaret and Christine, blue plastic pilars by Clare O'Callaghan, and giant pink coral by Daina Taimina (this form was lent for the opening of the exhibition only and is not a part of the longer-term installation). | ||||
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| The Toxic Reef, details. At left, blue plastic anemones by Clare O'callaghan - made from New York Times plastic bags embellished with ring-pull tops and plastic drinking straws. Clare has made an entire art out of recycling New York Times wrappers, a specificity which proves that no ecological niche in the crochet-hyperbolic-universe is too tiny to produce giganticly wondrous results. At right, a grove of white plastic-bag pilars by Margaret Wertheim, with plastic-bag coral form by Daina Taimina and her daughter, blue plastic pilars by Clare and orange+blue yarn corals by Shari Porter. | ||||
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| Left: Closeup of Ildiko Szabo's anemone patch in The Toxic Reef, with Jelly-Yarn coral by Kathleen Greco. Right: Giant orange corals by Christine Wertheim with pilar coral by Kristine Brandel. | ||||
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2005 The Institute for Figuring |
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