Presented by:
Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Sesnon Art Gallery
Crochet Coral Reef: CO2CA-CO2LA Ocean by Margaret and Christine Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring opens at the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery.
February 10 - May 6, 2017
The Crochet Coral Reef project responds to the environmental crisis of global warming and the escalating problem of oceanic plastic trash. Residing at the intersection of mathematics, marine biology, handicraft, and community art practice, the Crochet Coral Reef highlights not only the damage humans do to the earth's environment, but also our power for positive action. The project constitutes an elegiacally beautiful, artistically complex, and socially powerful way to bring citizens together around a devastating ecological challenge—the survival of the coral reefs and marine ecologies throughout the world.
The Crochet Coral Reef has been exhibited in art and science museums worldwide, including the Museum of Art and Design (New York), the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), the Hayward Gallery (London), the Science Gallery (Dublin), and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC).
Join us to celebrate the opening of Crochet Coral Reef: CO2CA-CO2LA Ocean at the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery with Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring February 10 and 11.
February 10
4- 5 pm, Digital Arts Research Center: Artist talk with Christine Wertheim
5- 7 pm, Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery: Reception
February 11
2- 4 pm, Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery: Artist Meet and Greet
These events are FREE and open to the public. Permits will be for sale at the Performing Arts Lot and the Porter College Lot for $5.
In addition to the exhibition Crochet Coral Reef: CO2CA-CO2LA Ocean at the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, related programming includes the creation of the UC Santa Cruz Satellite Reef, crocheted by UCSC students alongside faculty, staff and Santa Cruz community members. This latest addition to an ever-evolving wooly archipelago of crochet reefs worldwide will be exhibited at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center beginning May 4, 2017. See ias.ucsc.edu for more details.
Crochet Coral Reef: CO2CA-CO2LA Ocean and the UC Santa Cruz Satellite Reef are sponsored by the Institute of the Arts and Sciences in partnership with the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery and the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. The Institute of the Arts and Sciences is part of UC Santa Cruz’s Arts Division. It is an interdisciplinary programming unit, which creates public exhibitions, public events, publications, and collaborations with faculty and students, aligning with UCSC’s teaching and research.
Sisters Margaret Wertheim (a science writer) and Christine Wertheim (a poet, writer and faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts) are co-founders of the Institute For Figuring, a Los Angeles non-profit devoted to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics. The IFF is a "play tank" which develops artworks, exhibitions and programs that engage audiences in topics ranging from the physics of snowflakes to mathematical paper folding. www.theiff.org
Image credit: Institute For Figuring's Crochet Coral Reef project, 2005-ongoing. Photo © the IFF.