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Soft sculpture is a type ofsculpture or three-dimensional form that incorporates materials such ascloth,fur,foam rubber,plastic,paper,fibre, or similar supple and nonrigid or pliable materials.
Soft sculptures can be stuffed, sewn, draped, stapled, glued, hung, or woven. These materials and techniques distinguish soft sculpture from sculpture made from more traditional hard materials such as stone,bronze, orwood that are then carved or modelled.
The term “soft sculpture” became a relevant art term in the1960s, having been previously called “soft forms” or “objects” by the community of the time.[1] It was popularized by the artistClaes Oldenburg, a member of the pop art movement, who created oversized sculptural replicas of everyday objects from soft materials. Oldenburg’s objects typically began as realistic forms that were stitched and/or stuffed to create a piece of sculpture.[2]
Soft sculpture can be traced as far back asVictorian Era (1880s) embroidery, in which Victorian women would insert small stuffed figures into their embroideries to memorialize their friends.[2] However, the more common definition of soft sculpture can be dated back to theDada movement of the1920s and thereadymade, which sought to break down the idea of a traditional art by treating everyday objects with absurdity, similar to Oldenburg’s ‘absurd’ and oversized, but every day, objects.[2]
One example of a readymade soft sculpture isMarcel DuChamp’s 1917 piece entitledTraveller’s Folding Item created out of a textile typewriter cover.[3]
More recently, contemporary sculptors such asCosima von Bonin,Janet Echelman,Thomas Liu Le Lann,Faith Ringgold,Shinique Smith orYayoi Kusama have expanded the technique to address contemporary topics such asfeminism, political beliefs, or racial injustices.
Soft sculptures have often been toted to be a form of “rebellion” against conventional sculpting.
The practice of taking humble, everyday objects and elevating them into high art created a form of “rebellion” against conventional sculpting that uses precious materials like metals and stone. Pieces can often have to do with the human body and intimacy, associations that are formed due to the organic forms soft materials often create.
However, soft sculpting doesn’t have to relate to the body at all, rather creating life and movement in something static.
Soft sculptures were popularized in the 1960s by artists such asClaes Oldenburg, who is credited, along with other members of the Pop Art Movement, with the creation of soft sculpture. Oldenburg made oversized recreations of everyday items.Floor Burger represents a large hamburger patty nestled in the middle of two tan buns with a pickle for garnish on the top, all made from canvas filled with rubber foam and cardboard. InThe Store, a project he conceived in 1981, Oldenburg made a selection of giant soft sculpture that were displayed and for sale at his storefront/studio in New York. The exhibition included works likeFloor Cake andFloor Cone, which were sewn, stuffed, painted, and larger than life replicas of consumable items.[4]
Yayoi Kusama is another artist credited for the rise of soft sculpture in the 1960s. One of her earliest sculpture works is entitledAccumulation No. 1. Kusama hand sewed and painted protuberances and attached them to an armchair. Some of Kusama’s other works also incorporate repetition of soft sewn forms, often referred to as ‘phalluses’.[5]
Faith Ringgold was a prominentmixed-media artist in the 1960s and 1970s, who advocated for marginalized groups through paintings, performances, and soft sculpture. She experimented with soft sculpture as a new medium, crafting hanging and freestanding pieces. She was inspired by African culture throughout her works, replicating a similar style evident inAfrican masks in her own renditions. These consisted of linen canvas, which she then painted, beaded, and wove with palm leaves (raffia) for hair. Her masks were sometimes human-sized sculptures, with pieces of rectangular cloth for dresses, and painted gourds that represented breasts. The well-known soft sculptureBen depicts a homeless man decorated with flags, ribbons, and buttons, whose allusions to social movements of the 1970s (such asBlack Power and thefeminist movement), as well as American and Confederate flags, symbolize a person deeply interested in reforming the political system.[6] Ringgold’s story quilts, such asWho’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? (1983), echo these concerns.
Shinique Smith is a current artist celebrated for transforming everyday materials into vibrant abstract works of art. Smith primarily began to experiment with cloth and politics in her art after reading an article inThe New York Times Magazine about bales of donated T-shirts being shipped from New York to Uganda. In Smith's works,Bale Variant No. 0017 andFavorite Things, she draws parallels between the bales shipped to Uganda and the historical bales of cotton from the US South, linking the materialization of the fabric to its origins.[7] In the recent piece made by Smith,Grace Stands Beside from 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, Smith uses donated garments and fabrics from Baltimore residents to make a large-scale deity sculpture as a monument to Grace, a state of being that black people have endured prejudice embodied as a means to survive. The titleGrace Stands Beside reclaims language from an inscription on the base of a Confederate monument that states “Glory stands beside our grief,”.[8]
The connection between soft sculpture andfeminism can be attributed to the historical context of women doing textile work.Jann Haworth created a soft sculpture titledOld Lady II, which depicts the feminist qualities of soft sculpture by depicting her grandmother making a quilt made out of a gown, cloth, and many hand-stitched elements. The sculpture celebrates women and feminism through the use of traditional techniques associated with women.[9]
