Annie Perkins
Artists
Annie Perkins
Math Teacher
Minneapolis Public Schools
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Statement
I am a public school math teacher, who explores a variety of mathematical art in my free time. Much of my mathematical art journey has included Islamic Geometry, and, inspired by Daina Taimina and others, I have also taken up mathematical yarn work, which has, most recently included a foray into knot theory.
Artworks
Five 7 Crossing Links
20 x 20 x 3 cm
Cotton yarn
2020
This piece consists of five 2-link knots. Four of the knots are constructed from the trefoil and an unknot. The fifth set of links shows two unknots, although one of the unknots appears, at first glance, to also be a trefoil. As I have worked my way through the knot and link tables, I have found it natural to group the knots into families, according to their tangles and projections. Happily, this informal sorting often surprises me as I find different knot projections connect seemingly dissimilar knots together. I hope the colors selected here invite viewers to entertain the question of whether this is a true "family" of knots.