Toxic Seas at MAD NY

Responding to the effects of climate change and ocean-bound plastic waste on coral reefs, Los Angeles-based sister-duo Margaret and Christine Wertheim mount Crochet Coral Reef: Toxic Seas at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). Celebrating the 10th-anniversary of The Institute For Figuring and this, on-going, project – first initiated to address the rapid degradation of the Great Barrier Reef in their native Australia – the exhibition sheds new light on these impending issues. Two large algorithmically-calculated crochet installations – a Coral Forest and multiple Pod Worlds – highlights the colourful and textured diversity of coral life. Two additional Bleached Reef and Toxic Reef iterations reveal its rapid loss. Mixing yarn and beads with upcycled plastic trash – collected from four years of the designers’ own consumption – these ‘artificial environments’ evoke the human-induced phenomenon of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Bringing urgency to, and inspiring action to address such a global problem, the project combines the fiction of scenography with the actuality of science. The intended response is best expressed as a jarring juxtaposition pitting aesthetic composition and a detached museum context against the conditions of reality. As part of MAD’s mandate to spotlight creatives changing the public’s perspective of craft, Toxic Seas transcends elements of dark truths, scientific fact, ecological activism, feminist art, mathematical accuracy and artisanal mastery.

Crochet Coral Reef: Toxic Seas
till 22 January 2017
MAD New York
2 Columbus Circle