Bridges 2026 Exhibition of Mathematical Art, Craft, and Design

Katherine A Seaton

Artists

Katherine A Seaton

Adjunct Associate Professor of Mathematics

Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, La Trobe University

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

k.seaton@latrobe.edu.au

View exhibition history

Statement

I am a mathematician, university lecturer (retired) and some-time fiber artist. I delight in the mathematics that can be experienced in the construction, by hand, of pieces of knitting, crochet and embroidery, and in the thought that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers constructed mathematics this way, too. I frequently, but not exclusively, use recycled or remnant materials. Sashiko is a stitching technique born of frugality. Its domestic origin, together with its geometry and symmetry, instantly appealed to me when I became aware of this embroidery style.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Obverse and Reverse'

Obverse and Reverse

84.0 x 29.0 cm

cotton yarn embroidery on cotton fabric

2026

Obverse and Reverse is a complete symmetry sampler of the two-sided friezes that can be instantiated using hitomezashi on the square grid. In total, there are 31 two-sided friezes; eighteen of them are incompatible with the constraints of hitomezashi. The obverse and reverse of each of the thirteen possible friezes have been stitched, one above the other. As well as symmetry under familiar transformations within the plane (rotation, reflection, glide reflection and translation), the observer will see roto-translation and roto-reflection exhibited by some of these friezes.
Image for entry 'Hitomezashi Wallpaper II'

Hitomezashi Wallpaper II

143.0 x 40.0 cm

cotton yarn, cotton, wool and polyester fabrics

2025

A complete symmetry sampler of the wallpaper patterns that can be stitched in hitomezashi on the kagome lattice (also called dilute isometric hitomezashi). Ten of the seventeen can be attained. From the top of the piece: c2mm and p2mm; p2; p2mg and p3m1; p6m and c1m1; p1g1; p1m1 and p1.