Geo-prime blackboard drawings, executed by Margaret Wertheim and Rich Nielsen, at the Venice Biennale.

IFF director Margaret Wertheim has made an elegant discovery about prime numbers and how they relate to geometry. In this workshop she’ll introduce the basics of her new “geo-prime” representation which visually reveals why primes are the atomic units of the number system. Participants will be making drawings on graph paper with colored pencils and exploring visual methods that examine the essence of why primes and composites are different numerical types. This is college level math expressed through drawing.

Following a successful informal event at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, this workshop will take place at the LA Central Library, courtesy of the library’s Director of Special Projects, Todd Lerew. There are a limited number of places available. All materials will be supplied. No prior mathematical knowledge is needed.

Date & Time: Sunday March 1st, 2-5pm. LA Central Library, Meeting Room B – on the ground floor, just off the 5th Street entrance. The Library is on the corner of 5th Street and Flower in downtown Los Angeles.

Event full. If you’d like to be added to a list for future “prime playing” workshops send an email and we’ll let you know when the next one is on: mail@theiff.org.

Workshop photos: 03/01/2020 @LA Public Library

Prime playing drawings, from LA Public Library workshop, 03/01/2020

Prime playing drawings, from LA Public Library workshop, 03/01/2020

Prime playing participants, from LA Public Library workshop, 03/01/2020

Prime playing participants, from LA Public Library workshop, 03/01/2020

IFF director Margaret Wertheim will be visiting the University of Houston as a guest artist and lecturer in the School of Art. On Thursday January 30, 6:30 pm, Wertheim will present a public lecture about the Crochet Coral Reef project and its intersection of art, science, mathematics, environmentalism and community engagement. Ms Wertheim will also conduct a workshop for students and faculty about hyperbolic space in which participants explore this enigmatic geometry and its relationship to nature by making paper models.

Events hosted by the University of Houston’s Katherine G. McGovern College of Arts, School of Art, organized by Professor Anna Mayer.

Events Place & Time:
January 30, 2020. Dudley Recital Hall – Fine Arts 132.
5:30pm Reception, 6:30pm Lecture

University of Houston events webpage.

Students construct a paper model of hyperbolic space in Margaret Wertheim’s “Making Space” class at the Hayward Gallery’s “Wide Open School” (2014).

Margaret Wertheim lecture @ University of Houston, School of Art, 01/30/2020.

“Pod World – Hyperbolic,” by Christine and Margaret Wertheim at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Photo courtesy the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale “May You Live in Interesting Times” by Francesco Galli.

Helsinki Biennial 2021.

Helsinki Biennial: The Same Sea – curated by Pirkko Siitari and Taru Tappola.

Giant coral monsters crocheted out of plastic cluster in a chapel-like space at the Helsinki Biennial. Over 18 months during Covid lockdown – from January 2020 to May 2021 – 3000 Finns worked their hooks to collectively crochet a mind-blowing mass of corals out of fiber and recycled plastic. Vast in scale, this outpouring of Nordic creativity has been curated into two installations for Finland’s inaugural biennial, taking place in downtown Helsinki and on Vallisaari island.

Helsinki Biennial 2021:The Same Sea, gathers together 40 international artists and artist collectives whose work reflects on the interconnectedness of humans, non-human beings, and the environment. For the exhibition Crochet Coral Reef creators Christine Wertheim and Margaret Wertheim worked with the people of Finland to create the Helsinki Satellite Reef drawing in participants from far-flung regions of the nation from urban Helsinki to the polar North. Artists, teachers, students, accomplished crafters and novices alike, along with a renowned Finnish designer, contributed over 5000 corals.

Coral Forest – Helsinki. Photo © Maija Toivanen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial

Unique to this iteration of the project were four towering Coral Forest sculptures assembled from an epic array of plastic corals commissioned for the Biennial and made entirely from recycled materials. Playful forms both ludicrous and serious, at once evocative of Dr. Seuss and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, these totemic works draw our attention to the tsunami of plastic trash pouring into the world’s oceans. Chief among the materials used here was 200 kilos of ribbon-like offcuts salvaged from the industrial production of toilet paper packaging.

The Helsinki Coral Forest was co-curated by Margaret and Christine Wertheim along with a quartet of talented local ladies: Lotta Kjellberg, Elina Ahlstedt, Noora El Harouny and Tuija Maija Piironen, aka Team Finland. The works were displayed in an underground ammunition bunker, now repurposed as a location for art.

Exhibition website and photo gallery:
Crochet Coral Reef website.

Exhibition dates: June 12–September 26, 2021.
Location: Vallisaari Island, Finland.

Ammunition storage bunkers on Vallisaari island now repurposed as a home for the Helsinki Biennial. Photo © Helsinki Art Museum.

Track 16 Gallery, 25th Anniversary Exhibition, 2019

In 2009, Track 16 Gallery in Los Angeles exhibited the Crochet Coral Reef, in a stunning, sprawling show that remains a highlight of the reef’s own sprawling CV. Now, in November/December 2019, Track 16 celebrates its 25th anniversary with a zinging exhibition – Attempt to Raise Hell – at its new space in the Bendix Building in downtown LA. This power-packed assortment of work features individual pieces from almost all the artists who have shown at Track 16 over the years from the shows they exhibited there. Included also is a new piece of hyperbolic crochet by IFF co-director Christine Wertheim. The IFF is honored to be here along with so many artist we admire: Georgeanne Dean, Laurie Steelink, Manuel Ocampo, Marsian De Lellis, Janie Geiser, Johanna Went, Mondongo and others. We salute Track 16’s founder and on-going impresario Tom Patchett, the greatest under-heralded patron of LA art.

Attempt to Raise Hell is curated by Sean Meredith.

Dates: November 16 – December 21, 2019.

Location: Bendix Building, 1206 Maple Ave, Los Angeles, 90015.

Track 16 exhibition website.

Hyperbolic Crochet model by Christine Wertheim, 2019.

Hyperbolic Crochet model by Christine Wertheim, 2019.

Silly-putty painting by Mondongo.

Painting on paper by Laurie Steelink

The IFF is a participating artist in the exhibition Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials, at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art,curated by Joyce Robinson, Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, and Heather Davis.

Location: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon

Dates: September 22–December 30, 2018

Participating Artists:

Moresin Allahyari, Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Han Bing, Dianna Cohen, Willie Colem Bonnie Collura, Gisela Colon, Emmanuel Bakery Daou, Mark Dion, Katrin Hornek, Kelly Jazvac, Chris Jordan, Brian Jungen, Pamela Longobardi, Steve McPherson, Zanele Muholi, Vik Muniz, Mathew Northridge, Ausora Robson, Evelyn Rydz, Tejal Shah, Jessica Stockolder, Rebecca Strzelec, Ann Tarantino, Christine Wertheim, Margaret Wertheim, Deb Todd Wheeler, Kelly Wood, Pinar Yolas, Marina Zurkow.

Jordan Schnitzer Musem – exhibition webpage

The IFF is a participating artist in the traveling exhibition Plastic Entanglements: Ecology Aethsetics Materials at the Palmer Museum of Art, University of Pennsylvania: February 13–June 17th, 2018

Plastic Entanglements: Ecology Aethsetics Materials is a traveling exhibition about humanity’s relationship with plastic curated by Joyce Robison, Jennifer Wagner-Lawler and Heather Davis. After the Palmer Museum, the exhibition will travel to Smith College Museum of Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (University of Oregon), and the Chazen Museum of Art (University of Madison-Wisconsin). For the show, the IFF has created has several new plastic hyperbolic crochet sculptural works. Also in the exhibition are two large totemic works by IFF co-director Christine Wertheim constructed from discarded electrical cables and found plastic debris.

“Plastic Fantastic 1” by Margaret Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring, with black JellyYarn sea creature by Arlene Mintzer. From cover of Palmer Museum of Art catalog, 2018.

About the Exhibition: 

The story of plastic is as complex as the polymer chains that make up its unique material properties. Plastic Entanglements brings together 60 works by 30 contemporary artists to explore the environmental, aesthetic and technological entanglements of our ongoing love affair with this paradoxical, infinitely malleable substance. Organized by the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University, this major loan exhibition features work by an international roster of emerging and mid-career artists. Visitors will encounter a varied array of artwork, from meticulous drawings, photographs and video installations to 3D-printed objects and sculptures fabricated from found plastic.

Participating Artists:

Moresin Allahyari, Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Han Bing, Dianna Cohen, Willie Colem Bonnie Collura, Gisela Colon, Emmanuel Bakery Daou, Mark Dion, Katrin Hornek, Kelly Jazvac, Chris Jordan, Brian Jungen, Pamela Longobardi, Steve McPherson, Zanele Muholi, Vik Muniz, Mathew Northridge, Ausora Robson, Evelyn Rydz, Tejal Shah, Jessica Stockolder, Rebecca Strzelec, Ann Tarantino, Christine Wertheim, Margaret Wertheim, Deb Todd Wheeler, Kelly Wood, Pinar Yolas, Marina Zurkow.

“Chthulcene 1” by Christine Wertheim, made from scavenged electrical cables and found plastic debris.

The IFF is a participating artist in the exhibition Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials, at the Chazen Museum of Art, curated by Joyce Robinson, Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, and Heather Davis.

Location: Chazen Museum of Art, University of Madison-Wisconsin.

Dates: September 13, 2019 – January 5, 2020.

Chazen Museum exhibition website:

Plastic Entanglements is a traveling exhibition, previously exhibited at the Palmer Museum of Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Smith College Museum of Art.