The Institute For Figuring // Crochet Coral Reef @ Southwest School Of Art, San Antonio, Texas



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	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.
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