The Core Collection has been shown at more than 20 venues worldwide including the 58th Venice Biennale (Italy), Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Hayward Gallery (London), Science Gallery (Dublin), Museum of Arts and Design (New York), Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C.), Museum Frieder Burda (Germany, 2022), Schlossmuseum Linz (Austria 2023/24). The works in this suite are made by Margaret and Christine Wertheim, who design and fabricate the sculptures and crochet most of the pieces. Incorporated into these sculptures are also exquisite pieces from a select group of the Reef’s “Core Contributors.” A list of these innovative crafters can be seen here.

The Core Collection

The Core Collection consists of the following sculptures:

• Coral Forest (five large plus one small pedestaled works)
• Bleached Reef (large vitrined work)
• Toxic Reef (large vitrined work)
• Branched Anemone Garden (large vitrined work)
• Pod Worlds (14 small vitrined works of miniature coral gardens. Subsets can be loaned.)
• Nudibranchs (2 small vitrined works featuring silk-shiburi sea slugs)
• Hyperbolic Specimens (selection of doilies, vintage pattern books, and 3D models demonstrating hyperbolic forms)
• Mathematics Blackboard (a large chalkboard drawing with diagrams about hyperbolic geometry)
• Hanging Works (3 pieces – 2 wall-mounted, 1 hangs from ceiling)

An additional work called The Midden is available when space and resources permit. This can also be shown as a stand-alone piece. The Midden is a large hanging work, containing 4 years-worth of the Wertheim sisters domestic plastic trash. It’s a powerful meditation on oceanic trash.

The Core Collection is available for loan to museums and galleries, in whole or in part. If your institution would like to consider a show please see our guidelines here: Exhibiting the Crochet Reef.

Bleached Reef and Toxic Reef

The Bleached Reef is an invocation of coral “bleaching,” the phenomena living reefs undergo in response to stresses such as pollution and warming waters. In exhibition settings, the Bleached Reef is usually paired as a diptych with the Toxic Reef, a black and white tableau crocheted from yarn, plastic, and video tape. Both works are displayed on vitrined pedestals. [Pedastal Dimensions: W 94 inches x D 30 inches x H 20 inches; Vitrine Dimensions: W 94 inches x D 30 inches x H 30 inches.] See here and here for more information about these pieces.

Branched Anemone Garden

A large vitrined work, Branched Anemone Garden is the first reef the Wertheim sisters crocheted. During its life, the piece has undergone various “evolutionary” phases leading to its current incarnation, which is presented in-the-round. The work was inspired by the Great Barrier Reef and by the orange-and-red color palette of the Hamilton Ranges in Central Australia. [Pedestal Dimensions: W 94 inches x D 22 inches x H 45 inches. Vitrine Dimensions: W 94 inches x  D 22 inches x H 24 inches.] This work is loaned from the collection of Lisa Yun Lee.

Pod Worlds

A series of small vitrined Pod Worlds, each invoking a miniature coral universe. These works contain complex and delicate pieces by some of the Crochet Coral Reef project’s most skilled and beloved crafters. Some of the Pods are all crocheted in yarn; others are made from beaded pieces resembling small Byzantine gems. Several are made from plastic, and these works sit on a bed of “plastic sand” harvested from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Two Pods are crocheted from electroluminescent wire, designed for military applications such as lighting the insides of tanks. There are 14 Pod Worlds in all. Exhibitions may include all, or a fewer number, depending on available space. [Dimensions: Each Pod World vitrine is 15 inches x 15 inches x 15 inches. These may be mounted on pedestals or on a wooden base cantilevered off the wall.]

Nudibranchs

Two small vitrined works, each displaying a silk-shiburi “sea slug” surrounded tiny fine coral pieces, with “capacitor crabs” made from discarded electronic  elements.

Hyperbolic Specimens

A selection of doilies, vintage crochet pattern books, and 3D-printed models demonstrating hyperbolic forms.

Hanging Works

The Traveling Exhibition includes 3 hanging works. There are two pieces that hang on the walls: a section of the Latvian Satellite Reef, which brings the community-making aspect of the project into the show; and the Carnation Mound, a work inspired by an actual coral species, crocheted by Reef contributors Marianne Middelberg and Sarah Simons. The third element is a remarkable Hyperbolic Sea Snake that hangs from the ceiling in a 20-foot long coil. Commissioned for the Reef from Australian crafter Helen Bernasconi, this is a unique, precision-engineered exercise in hyperbolic crochet.

Mathematics Blackboard

The Mathematics Blackboard is a large-scale drawing on a traditional school blackboard, diagramming the hyperbolic geometry underlying living reef organisms and crochet reef forms. [Dimensions: W 16 feet x H 4 feet.]

The Midden

This work is literally rubbish. The Midden is 4 years worth of Christine and Margaret Wertheim’s domestic plastic trash suspended in a fishing net from the ceiling. The sisters collected the trash in their home from the period January 2007 to April 2011. The work can be displayed in an “atom-bomb” configuration; or as a canopy of trash visitors walk under and explore from below with flashlights, as if they are divers “swimming” under the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Midden is a unique, personal artistic meditation on oceanic plastic trash. Dimensions variable.

Note: This piece is not part of the standard Traveling Exhibition and requires additional resources. See here for more about The Midden, and here on the role of plastic in the Crochet Reef project.