“The Crochet Coral Reef is palpable, polymorphous, terrifying and inspiring stitchery.”        –Donna Haraway

Australian-born, California-based sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim draw on a unique fusion of mathematics, marine biology, and traditional handicraft to create large-scale coral landscapes at once beautiful and blighted. Their soft sculptures simulate living reefs using crochet to mimic the curling, crenelated forms of marine organisms.

The Crochet Coral Reef project has been exhibited at the 58th Venice Biennale, Helsinki Biennial, Andy Warhol Museum, The Smithsonian and other international venues. 

With essays about the scientific, social, and environmental dimensions of the project, the book provides a critical in-depth look at the power of art and community in the face of climate change. Collaborative, figurative, material, conceptual, artistic, feminist and playful, the Wertheims’ Crochet Coral Reef alerts us to the reality that life on Earth is nothing if not entangled.

Hardcover, 229 pages