The Baltimore Satellite Reef’s final viewing will be Friday, June 28 from 6-9 pm at Gallery CA. If you haven’t seen it yet, I would suggest checking it out, especially now that it has been added to significantly since it’s opening reception. For anyone who wants more information about this amazing exhibit, here’s a review I wrote about the project for the Baltimore Citypaper.
HYPERBOLIC CROCHET: The Baltimore Satellite Reef makes a great barrier reef out of a doily
By Cara Ober
Published May 22, 2013
It is rare, but not inconceivable, to encounter a tropical, underwater paradise in an art gallery in Baltimore. Currently, the white walls at the City Arts Gallery in Station North have been replaced with undulating layers of cerulean blue. The track lighting beams downward, simulating the effect of submerged sunlight. There’s a burbling aquarium with a turtle named Brobee, a swarm of brightly colored jellyfish suspended in midair, and lots of educational text and maps on the walls. Dominating the space are several low ridges and stalactites, formed from an accumulation of crystalline structures in a loud rainbow of hues.
While the Baltimore Satellite Reef may initially remind you of a gaudy grandma’s afghan, this new exhibition is actually a complex junction of post-Euclidian geometry, traditional feminine handicrafts, environmental activism, and public art outreach. The effort is a collaboration between City Arts resident Karida Collins, a professional yarn dyer and businesswoman, and Deana Haggag, a MICA curatorial practice student, as well as the Los Angeles-based Institute for Figuring and numerous students and crochet enthusiasts from the Baltimore area.
The seeds for this project were actually planted in 1997, when Dr. Daina Taimina, a Cornell University mathematician, discovered that the concept of hyperbolic space could be physically realized through crocheting. The curvy, three-dimensional forms her students created literally illustrated the warped relationship between parallel lines and rectilinear space: The doilies resembled different types of organic structures, especially kelp and coral, and, on a larger scale, the cosmos.
Go to Baltimore Citypaper to read the whole article.
* All photos by Rebecca Duex.
