MENDING THE CORAL REEF

The Los Angeles based Institute for Figuring, which has previously collaborated on exhibitions with the Museum of Jurassic Technology, brings its Crocheted Great Barrier Reef to NYC this week. The project represents the intersection of hyperbolic geometry, natural history, global warming awareness, and feminist handi-craft. From treehugger.com - "With the threat of global warming and agricultural pollutants, scientists believe the reef will be dead in 30 years." The crotched creatures from the ocean's depths have been steadily growing, moving from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York. The exhibition has been snowballing into its current incarnation - a gigantic gorgeous representation of the disintegrating reefs. Read more in this NY Times article and this Chicago Reader article. You can view more images of the reef on this Flickr page.

The reef's opening reception in New York is Sunday, April 6, 3-6pm at World Financial Center, Winter Garden (info). The Reef will also be on view at Broadway Windows at NYU (corner of Broadway and East 10th Street) beginning April 6th. A lecture with Margaret Wertheim, director of the Institute for Figuring, and Kate Holmes, AMNH marine biologist, will be held at the American Natural History Museum on Tuesday, April 8, 7 pm (info) and a symposium will be held at New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU on Sunday, April 20th, 11 am (PDF info).