The Chicago Reef Project

About the project:

In the summer of 2007, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum joined the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef efforts started by the Institute For Figuring. The Museum invited Chicagoans from all ages, neighborhoods and crochet skill-levels to atttend workshops and contribute to a city-wide artistic outcry against environmental hazards threatening reef-producing coral populations throughout the world. Using a crochet method based on a repeating pattern of stitch-increase that mimics a peculiar geometry, over 150 Chicagoans produced coral specimens from yarn of all kinds. Some folks even made yarn out of their garbage--recycling plastic bags that might have ended up polluting our oceans. Once all donations of crocheted coral were collected, the Museum convened 21st century stitching salons to create life-like coral mounds that were later displayed sprawling along the floor of the Chicago Cultural Center's Chicago Rooms in the Fall of 2007.

Current and upcoming exhibitions:

World Financial Center, Winter Garden (Battery Park City, NYC)

Location: World Financial Center, Winter Garden

220 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10281.

On exhibition at the Winter Garden show will also be the brand new New York Reef and the Chicago Reef - which will remain on display through August 31.

LONDON:

Hayward Gallery - Southbank Center
Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Exhibition Dates: June 11 - August 17, 2008

Curated by Margaret and Christine Werteim

During Summer 2008 - in this International Year of the Reef - the Crochet Coral Reef will be showing in London at the Hayward Gallery. The exhibition will include an expanded version of the Bleached Reef, a new configuration of the Ladies Silurian Reef, the beautifully archaic Branched Anemone Garden, and the ever-growing Toxic Reef. On show for the first time will be the wondrously surreal Chicago Cambrian Reef (curated by IFF contributor Aviva Alter), plus a new formation of the Beaded Reef by master beaders Rebecca Peapples and Sue Von Ohlsen. The exhibition will also debut several new plastic installations: The Exploding Plastic Inevitable Reef (with hot-pink sand by Kathleen Greco), and the Bottle Tree Grove (featuring works by Christine Wertheim, Evelyn Hardin and Nadia Severns). Hanging elements in the show will include the all-plastic-bag Rubbish Vortex by Australian contributor Helle Jorgensen, a flotilla of jellyfish by Irish crafter Inga Hamilton, and Dr Axt's psychedelic coral-cloud "Reefer Madness."

In addition to the IFF reefs, the exhibition will also debut the amazing new UK Reef, currently being constructed by crafters across the UK (with contributions from Ireland, and even Australia - hey its a former colony).

This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Crafts Council, with the additional assistance of the Norton Family Foundation and George Loudon.

Welcome to the Chicago Reef Project webpage!
About the project: In the summer of 2007, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum joined the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef efforts started by the Institute For Figuring. The Museum invited Chicagoans from all ages, neighborhoods and crochet skill-levels to atttend workshops and contribute to a city-wide artistic outcry against environmental hazards threatening reef-producing coral populations throughout the world. Using a crochet method based on a repeating pattern of stitch-increase that mimics a peculiar geometry, over 150 Chicagoans produced coral specimens from yarn of all kinds. Some folks even made yarn out of their garbage--recycling plastic bags that might have ended up polluting our oceans. Once all donations of crocheted coral were collected, the Museum convened 21st century stitching salons to create life-like coral mounds that were later displayed sprawling along the floor of the Chicago Cultural Center's Chicago Rooms in the Fall of 2007.

This project brought women and men, children and adults, Hyde Parkers, Rogers Parkers, and Humboldt Parkers together for community workshops where they learned about Hyperbolic Geometry--the shape that governs the growth of corals--as well as environmentalism and the needle arts. The workshops were volunteer-run and hosted by organizations throughout the city who donated their space and resources to the project. This educational, artistic, and human exchange gave birth to a beautiful, explosive creation of color and form to draw attention to the grave environmental destruction that surrounds us. The community created by this project emerged armed with new understanding and a spirit of artistic activism that will continue through the passion of those individual crocheters and their newly formed friendships

While the Chicago Cultural Center exhibition ended in December of 2007, the Chicago Reef will travel on with the larger collection of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, inspiring others to contribute to the project and work towards environmental sustainability. So far both New York City and the United Kingdom have Reefs of their own! If or when the exhibitions of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef come to an end, the Chicago Reef will rest in various cultural institution in Chicago. If you are a Chicago organization interested in giving a branch of the Chicago Reef a home, please contact Catherine Chandler, Project Coordinator at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum at cath@uic.edu or 312.413.5353
Current and upcoming exhibitions:
NEW YORK CITY: World Financial Center, Winter Garden (Battery Park City, NYC) Location: World Financial Center, Winter Garden 220 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10281. As a sister exhibition to the Broadway Windows site, a second exhibition will be on show at the World Financial Center, Winter Garden. On display here will be the IFF's yarn-and-plastic-extravaganza, the Toxic Reef. The Winter Garden show will mark the debut appearance of the Rubbish Vortex, crocheted entirely from plastic shopping bags by IFF Australian contributor Helle Jorgensen. On display will also be a large cloud of plastic jellyfish forms by Irish contributor Inga Hamilton, Cambrian Explosion forms by Aviva Alter, hyperbolic octopii by Helen Bernasconi, Reefer Madness forms by Dr Axt, plastic diatoms by Evelyn Hardin, and beaded hyperbolic marvels by Rebecca Peapples and Sue Von Ohlsen.
On exhibition at the Winter Garden show will also be the brand new New York Reef and the Chicago Reef - which will remain on display through August 31.

LONDON: Hayward Gallery - Southbank Center Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX Exhibition Dates: June 11 - August 17, 2008 Curated by Margaret and Christine Werteim During Summer 2008 - in this International Year of the Reef - the Crochet Coral Reef will be showing in London at the Hayward Gallery. The exhibition will include an expanded version of the Bleached Reef, a new configuration of the Ladies Silurian Reef, the beautifully archaic Branched Anemone Garden, and the ever-growing Toxic Reef. On show for the first time will be the wondrously surreal Chicago Cambrian Reef (curated by IFF contributor Aviva Alter), plus a new formation of the Beaded Reef by master beaders Rebecca Peapples and Sue Von Ohlsen. The exhibition will also debut several new plastic installations: The Exploding Plastic Inevitable Reef (with hot-pink sand by Kathleen Greco), and the Bottle Tree Grove (featuring works by Christine Wertheim, Evelyn Hardin and Nadia Severns). Hanging elements in the show will include the all-plastic-bag Rubbish Vortex by Australian contributor Helle Jorgensen, a flotilla of jellyfish by Irish crafter Inga Hamilton, and Dr Axt's psychedelic coral-cloud "Reefer Madness."
In addition to the IFF reefs, the exhibition will also debut the amazing new UK Reef, currently being constructed by crafters across the UK (with contributions from Ireland, and even Australia - hey its a former colony). This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Crafts Council, with the additional assistance of the Norton Family Foundation and George Loudon.

Resources:
Information about the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef and the Institute For Figuring. Click here to be redirected to the IFF website. www.theiff.org Here is a link to instructions for making plastic bag yarn provided by Helle Jorgeson, one of the chief contributors to the Hyperbolic Coral Reef and the artist behind the Rubbish Vortex made of plastic bags. http://hellejorgensen.typepad.com/gooseflesh/2007/02/plastic_bag_yar.html Here is a link to the Institute For Figuring's hyperbolic crochet instructions--click the first link under HYPERBOLIC CROCHET BASICS in the left-hand column. Poke around this site for all kinds of amazing hyperbolic tidbits, including a photo of Bjork in a hyperbolic crochet suit! http://www.theiff.org./reef/index.html#

Craft on at the Museum: Based on the success of the Museum's involvement in the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project and because we have a rich history of craft-related practice at the Hull-House, the Museum has launched the Ellen Gates Starr Craftivism Series. Named after the co-founder of the Hull-House Settlement and the Chicago Chapter of the Arts and Crafts Society, this series hopes to tie the history of Craft and craftsmanship at Hull-House with the current burgeoning handmade movement. This series includes arts workshops and visits with craftivists, artists, filmmakers, and activists.