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

 

 

Crochet Coral Reef
@ Southwest School Of Art, San Antonio, Texas

Exhibition dates: February 12 - April 26, 2015

"Crochet Coral Forest" and "Branched Anemone Garden" at the Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX, 2015. Photo by Todd Johnson, courtesy Southwest School of Art.

During Spring 2015, the IFF's Crochet Coral Forest  was on exhibition at San Antonio's Southwest School of Art. Comprising six giant sculptures, the Coral Forest consists of three works in yarn, and three in plastic, metaphorically representing the dynamic tension between the organic and the anthropogenic in our changing ocean environment. 

Each sculpture stands between 8 and 10 feet tall, each a sentinel crafted through thousands of hours of human labor and meticulously assembled from hundreds of crochet pieces. As living reefs are made up from thousands of coral heads – these in turn the work of thousands of polyps cooperating together – so works in the IFF's Crochet Coral Reef are complex ecologies fabricated over years of accumulative labor by communities of people. Where the yarn reefs represent the slow beauty of nature, forged through eons, the plastic reefs reference the increasingly dominant powers of humanity, and the synthetic-saturated future we are rapidly bringing into being. Crafted from used plastic shopping bags, video tape, Saran wrap, bits of old hula hoop, cast-off toys, and other plastic detritus, these glittering monsters are constructed by Margaret and Christine Wertheim, and incorporate select pieces from the IFF's Core Reef Contributors.

Accompanying the Coral Forest  was the ever-playful Branched Anemone Garden, a dioramic installation inspired by the Great Barrier Reef and channeled through the ludic art of Dr. Suess. Also on display was an array of miniature Pod World vitrines, each a tiny coral landscape fashioned from pieces by some of the IFF's most skilled Reef contributors.

Contributors to this exhibition:
Crochet Coral Forest constructed by Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim (Los Angeles), with pieces by Sarah Simons (CA), Anna Mayer (CA), Jemima Wyman (CA), Christina Simons (LA), Evelyn Hardin (TX), Helen Bernasconi (Australia), Marianne Midelburg (Australia), Helle Jorgensen (Australia), Barbara Wertheim (Australia), Ildiko Szabo (England), Heather McCarren (CA), Dr. Axt (VT), Anitra Menning (CA), Shari Porter (CA), Clare O’Callaghan (CA), Kathleen Greco (PA), Nadia Severns (NY), Arlene Mintzer (NY), Jill Schrier (NY), Pamela Stiles (NY), Siew Chu Kerk (NY), Irene Lundgaard (Ireland), Orla Breslin (Ireland), Una Morrison (Ireland), Sally Giles (IL), Pate Conaway (IL), David Orozco (CA), Ann Wertheim (Australia), Elizabeth Wertheim (Australia), Katherine Wertheim (Australia), Lucinda Ganderton (UK), Beverly Griffiths (UK), Jane Canby (AZ), Jennifer White (AZ), Sharon Menges (AZ), Tane Clark (AZ), Nancy Youros (AZ), Gina Cacciolo (CA), Chantal Horeau (CA), Ying Wong (CA), and unknown Chinese factory workers.

Coral Pod-Worlds curated by Margaret and Christine, featuring pieces by:Sarah Simons (CA), Diana Simons (CA), Vonda N. McIntyre (WA), Sue Von Ohlsen (PA), Rebecca Peapples (MI), Mieko Fukuhara (Japan), Anita Bruce (UK), Gunta Jekabsone (Latvia), Jane Canby (AZ), Dagma Frinta (NY), and wire models by contributors to the Chicago Satellite Reef and the Irish Satellite Reef.

Gallery of Exhibition Photos - Southwest School of Art, 2015:

At Left: Coral Forest - Chthulu (made of video tape). At right: Coral Forest - Nin'imma (made of plastic shopping bags, Saran wrap, cable tiles and discarded plastic trash). At back are a row of Pod World Vitrines. Photo by Todd Johnson, courtesy Southwest School of Art, 2015.

Left: Coral Forest - Stheno (made of yarn and cable ties; from the collection of Jorian Polis Schutz). Middle: Coral Forest - Ea (made of plastic shopping bags, video tape, hula-hoops, plastic spades, cable tiles and discarded trash). Right: Coral Forest - Chthulu (made from video tape, tinsel and drinking straws.) Photo by Todd Johnson, courtesy Southwest School of Art, 2015.

Closeup of Coral Forest - Stheno (from the collection of Jorian Polis Schutz). At left: Coral Forest - Chthulu. Photo © Institute For Figuring, 2015.

Closeup of Coral Forest - Chthulu (made of video tape, tinsel, and drinking straws). At left: Coral Forest - Stheno (from the collection of Jorian Polis Schutz) and at back, Branched Anemone Garden (from the collection of Lisa Yun Lee.) Photo © Institute For Figuring, 2015.

At Left: Coral Forest - Ea. Middle: Coral Forest - Nin'imma.  At right: Coral Forest - Medusa (made of yarn, videotape and cable ties). Photo by Todd Johnson, courtesy Southwest School of Art, 2015.

At Left: Coral Forest - Nin'imma.  At right: Coral Forest - Medusa. Photo by Todd Johnson, courtesy Southwest School of Art, 2015.