Soft sculpture

Soft sculpture is a type of sculpture or three-dimensional form that incorporates materials such as cloth, fur, foam rubber, plastic, paper, fibre, or similar supple and non-rigid 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, or wood, that are then carved or modeled. The term "soft sculpture" became a relevant art term in the 1960s, having been previously called "soft forms" or "objects" by the community of the time. It was popularized by the artist Claes 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. Soft sculptures can be traced back to the Victorian era (1880s), when Victorian women would insert small stuffed figures into their embroideries to memorialize their friends. However, the more common definition of soft sculpture can be dated back to the Dada movement of the 1920s and the readymade, which sought to break down the idea of traditional art by treating everyday objects with absurdity, similar to Oldenburg's ‘absurd’ and oversized, yet everyday, objects. One example of a readymade soft sculpture is Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 piece entitled Traveller's Folding Item, created out of a textile typewriter cover. More recently, contemporary sculptors such as Cosima von Bonin, Janet Echelman, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Faith Ringgold, Shinique Smith, or Yayoi Kusama have expanded techniques to address contemporary topics such as feminism, racial injustices, and other political beliefs.