Art in the time of COVID

“Coral Forest” by Margaret and Christine Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring, at Lehigh University Art Galleries. Photo by Stephanie Veto for LUAG.

At once intimate and collective, the Crochet Coral Reef offers a unique model of art-making in the time of COVID. While the world shelters at home, three new Satellite Reefs are blooming into being. Under the auspices of the Helsinki Art Museum, thousands of Finnish crafters are crocheting corals for a display at the 2021 Helsinki Biennial. Toronto crocheters have been called into action by the Ontario Science Center, where an Ontario Satellite Reef will be shown alongside a major exhibition of the IFF’s own crochet reefs. And at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign the Urbana-Champaign Satellite Reef will feature a “day-glow” black-light sub-reef. By collectively mirroring the quiet productivity of the living reefs we emulate, we crochet “reefers” are building works of art that call attention to the crisis of global warming while also offering an alternative vision for what art-making can be – communal, humble, joyous, hand-made, and attuned to the webs of life.