Austrian Satellite Reef 2

July 18 - Sept 1, 2024
Schlossmuseum Linz
crochet coral artworks

Austrian Frieze II (curated by Romina Dodic) plus Steel City Reef and Pink Coral Tree, from the Austrian Satellite Reef.

Image © Institute For Figuring.

By popular demand, an expanded exhibition of the Austrian Satellite Reef is on display at Schlossmuseum Linz during Summer 2024. This show builds on the prior exhibition Austria’s Greatest Coral Reef – Crocheted Seas and Other Abstractions held at the museum from Oct 2023 through June 2024.

The new display includes the original suite of Austrian reefs created during 2023, plus additional reefs made in 2024, spearheaded by a passionate, obsessive group of local reef crafters led by Romina Dodic. Included is the first Austrian Frieze – a massive coral wall work (8 meters wide x 2 meters high) curated by Christine Wertheim and inspired by the ‘golden era’ paintings of Viennese symbolist Gustav Klimt, plus a freshly minted Austrian Frieze II (4 meters wide x 3 meters high, seen above) curated by Dodic. These giant coral “paintings” are soft-fiber analogs to Jackson Pollock’s “action paintings” channeled through the collective imagination of thousands of female crafters.

Also on show is an elegiac Steel City Reef composed of grey yarns and wire, a monochromatic homage to Linz’s designation as Austria’s ‘steel city’ and capital of the nation’s industrial heartland. Here too is a new Pink Coral Tree, Red Coral Tree, and other sculptures curated from the many thousands of pieces that poured through the post and were bespoke-made in on-site workshops during 2024, as if from a pluripotent life-source distributed across the land.

The Austrian Satellite Reef is a collaborative artwork conceived by Christine Wertheim and Margaret Wertheim, executed by the people of Austria and hosted by Schlossmuseum Linz.

crochet coral reef - large-scale wall mounted artwork

Austrian Frieze made from 5,000 corals contributed by 1,000 Austrian crafters, curated by Christine Wertheim.

Image © Institute For Figuring

The Austrian Satellite Reef is a nation-wide exercise in collaborative art-making that brought together 3,500 people from all walks of life around a shared goal of collective imagining. The resulting archipelago of crochet reefs – comprising over 30,000 coral pieces – stands as a monument to the power of communally-made art, and as an alternative to modernist obsessions with art as the purview of singular “genius.”

Thanks to museum director Alfred Weidinger for his unflagging support of the project; curator Genoveva Ruckert; project managers Petra Foehringer and Sandra Kratochwill; and community engagement organizer Gabriele Kainberger. Plus boundless appreciation to the thousands of Austrian crafters who contributed corals, and hundreds of thousands of hours of labor, to creating these mistressful works.

A list of all participants names is on the gallery walls and can be seen here.

crochet coral reef - all grey

Steel City Reef, curated by Romina Dodic.

Image © Institute For Figuring

Steel City Reef is a bespoke work made from monochrome grey-and-white yarns and wire, conceived and executed by a group of 11 local Linz women. Here is a delicate, wry, womanly interpretation of “industry” – a floofy envisioning of the machine-age filtered through a collective female imaginary. Call it the craft-industrial complex.

Steel City Reefers: Romina Dodic, Elizabeth Ajami, Ulrike Ozlberger, Elizabeth Selig, Ulrike Mally, Angelika Rudelicz, Marina Alesi, Suzanne Hennerbichler, Barbara Rudelics, Maria Frisch, Irmi Arzt, Ursula Gierlinger, Michaela Heidlmeir.

crochet coral artwork in orange color

Detail of Austrian Frieze II.

Image © Institute For Figuring
crochet coral reef art installation

Austrian Pod Worlds and Pink Coral Tree.

Image courtesy Schlossmuseum Linz by Michael Marisch

Many community organizations were engaged to participate in the Austrian Satellite Reef project, casting a wide socially inclusive net that included refugee centers, senior homes, migrant shelters, community centers, yarn stores, and others. Outreach for the project was spear-headed by Gabriele Kainberger and generously supported by Schlossmuseum Linz director Alfred Weidinger.

Participating Community Organizations:
Alten- und Pflegeheim Münichholz Steyr, Buchhandlung Ennsthaler Steyr, Café Lebenswert Hartheim, Club Aktiv Glimpfingerstraße Linz, Dominikanerhaus Steyr, Exit Sozial Bad Leonfelden, FA Freistadt pro mente OÖ, Galerie KULTURFORMEN Linz, GES.UND proges Haslach, Goldhauben- und Kopftuchgruppe Vöcklamarkt/Pfaffing, Goldhaubengruppe Schwanenstadt, Handarbeitsgruppe Riedenthal, Handarbeitsrunde Kronsdorf, Handarbeitsstadl Schmidttorstraße Linz, Haus der Barmherzigkeit Demenzstation Wien, Haus der Frau Linz, Klimabienale Wien, JKU Institut für Angewandte Geometrie, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Pfarre Bad Ischl, OÖ. Hilfswerk Gmbh Hort Bad Ischl, SELBA Gruppe Pfarre St. Theresia Linz, Handarbeitsrunde Stelzer Haslach, Strickbar Schwanenstadt, Strickgruppe Mealana, Strickgruppe Quelle.komm Feldkirch, Strickgruppe Wels, Treffpunkt mensch & arbeit Rohrbach/Berg, Verein OTELO Haid, Verein Spirit of Art Mautern, Verein Zu-Flucht Linz, Wolloholik Arbeitsgruppe Attersee

crochet corals in darkness

Details of  Austrian Frieze II.

Images © Institute For Figuring
crochet coral reef sculpture
crochet coral reef sculpture

Pod World from the Austrian Satellite Reef – coral pieces by Ulrike Mally/Ozlberger.

Images © Institute For Figuring

Among the 3,500 people who contributed corals for the Austrian Satellite Reef, were hundreds of students from dozens of schools in the city of Linz and its environs. Inspired by the project, school children made reefs from paper and plastics and other craft materials. One school created a suite of sea-posters including a grade 2  collage “No Trash in the Ocean!” and a poster of “Fantasy Ideas” with their concepts for machines and processes to remediate the ocean.

collage of sea creature drawings by children

“No Trash in the Sea!” – collage by grade 2 children at the VS Lengenfeld school.

Image © Institute For Figuring
coral reef artwork made from paper by school children

Reefs made by Austrian school children at the Kornergymnasium, in response to the Crochet Coral Reef project.

Images courtesy Gabriele Kainberger, Schlossmuseum Linz
crochet coral reef made by children

Austrian Satellite Reef – Participating Schools:
BAFEP Salzburg, BAFEP Steyr, BG und BRG Schauergymnasium Wels, BG und BRG Körnergymnasium Linz, BORG Honauer Linz, BRG Hamerling Linz, BRG Solar City Linz, BRG Steyr, BRG Wien3, Georg von Peuerbach Gymnasium Linz, HBLA für künstlerische Gestaltung Linz, HLW Steyr, HTL Steyr, Kunst, Mode, Design Wien, MS der Franziskanerinnen Ried, MS der Franziskanerinnen, Wels, MS Gaspoltshofen, MS Neuhofen an der Krems, MS Ottensheim, NMS Marchtrenk, NMS Seewalchen, PH der Diözese Linz.

Gallery Installation Views
Photos by Michael Maritsch, courtesy Schlossmuseum Linz, and by Margaret Wertheim © Institute For Figuring.

crochet coral reef art installation crochet coral reef installation crochet coral reef wall mounted coral painting crochet coral reef art installation crochet coral reef art installation in gallery crochet coral reef art installation crochet coral reef art installation crochet coral reef art installation
group of women in front of crochet coral artwork

Refugee women crocheters from Verein ZuFlucht, with the Austrian Frieze and their own mini-reef in foreground. Community engagement organizer Gabriele Kainberger is seated bottom row, left.

Image courtesy Schlossmuseum Linz
room full of children's drawings of sea creatures

Workroom at Schlossmuseum Linz filled with children’s drawings of sea creatures.

Photo © Institute For Figuring