A Reef Crafted from a Thousand Hands

Concept artist Petra Maitz and Kandima Maldives are crafting elegant crocheted sea creatures.

Austrian conceptual artist Dr. Petra Maitz and Kandima Maldives are inviting artisans around the globe to crochet vibrant corals and marine creatures under the evocative motto “Crochet the Reef.” By 2028, this collective endeavour is poised to culminate in “The Living Crochet Reef @Kandima”—the world’s largest crocheted coral reef.
Coral reefs do not arise from a single organism, but through the interaction of countless tiny creatures. Petra Maitz has been applying this principle to her artistic practice for more than twenty years: many individual contributions coalesce to form a work whose true creator is the community. “When art begins to function like an ecosystem, it becomes more than just an installation. It becomes a living organism,” the artist remarks.

With “The Living Crochet Reef @Kandima,” the resort in Dhaalu Atoll continues the exhibition “DHIRUN: Art for Biodiversity,” which showcased local artists in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as part of the resort’s own KULA Art Initiative. People of all ages are invited to participate—guests, artists, schools, creatives, and crochet communities from around the world. Crocheting is approached through free interpretation, and each contribution becomes part of a larger work that, like a natural reef, continues to evolve. Maitz does not regard crocheting as a craft but rather as an artistic method. Her installations explore how collective processes emerge and how knowledge is transmitted through collaborative action; the focus is not on the finished object, but on the shared creative process. Given that coral reefs rank among the world’s most imperilled ecosystems, she eschews didactic imagery in favour of collaborative creation designed to heighten awareness of biodiversity. Her practice draws inspiration from Joseph Beuys’ expanded notion of art as well as from Alexander von Humboldt’s conviction that nature can be comprehended only through love.

This approach is not new in her practice. As early as 2001, the Vienna-born artist established the Lady Musgrave Reef Foundation in Vienna and launched the Lady Musgrave Reef, among the first participatory coral art projects. The reef, which has grown over decades, has been exhibited in Budapest, Bilbao, Barcelona, Karlsruhe, Graz, Krems, Hamburg, Mumbai, Lima, Puebla, Sydney, and Beijing, among other cities. Today, it is on display at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, consisting of approximately 1,400 pieces. Maitz first studied medicine, then fine arts at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, and later earned her doctorate in the field of knowledge transfer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

For Kandima Maldives—a three-kilometer-long lifestyle resort operated by Pulse Hotels & Resorts featuring 10 restaurants and bars—the project is a continuation of its art program: With the Kula Art Studio, art already has a permanent home at the resort.