It all started with a seven-foot hamburger. Known as Floor Burger, the bigger-than-life artwork is made of painted canvas and stuffed with foam rubber and cardboard boxes. Pop artist Claes Oldenburg, who created the giant hamburger in 1962, is quoted as saying “If you’re going to make sculpture out of real things around you, then why not try to make them soft so that you can push them around, and they’ll change shape?”
It may not seem significant today but it was remarkable at the time. “Claes Oldenburg … made a radical contribution to the history of sculpture by rethinking its materials, forms, and subject matter” explains the Pulitzer Arts Foundation website. “By translating the medium of sculpture from hard to soft, Oldenburg collapsed solid surfaces into limp, deflated objects that were subject to gravity and chance.”
“The Hamburger represents Oldenburg’s introduction of soft sculpture” says the Art Gallery of Ontario where Oldenburg’s famous soft sculpture currently resides.
The art of soft sculpture has evolved significantly since Oldenburg’s rather crude, giant hamburger. But what has it evolved into? What, exactly, is soft sculpture today?
Wikipedia defines soft sculpture as “a type of sculpture or three-dimensional form that incorporates materials such as cloth, fur, foam rubber, plastic, paper, fibre or similar supple and nonrigid materials. Soft sculptures can be stuffed, sewn, draped, stapled, glued, hung, draped or woven”.
In her book Soft Sculpture, author Carolyn Vosburg Hall starts with the obvious―“Soft Sculpture is sculpture that is soft”. She goes on to clarify “Like ‘hard’ sculpture, it may be three-dimensional and designed to be looked at from more than one angle. Or it may compare to relief sculpture in low dimension and emphasize the textural quality of the fibers used.”
“Textile artists have long forged their own way, but they can be especially rebellious when it comes to three-dimensional art. In addition to amazing aesthetics, textile sculptures also feature a remarkable nod to engineering” explains writer Mary Carson in her article Sculpted Textile Wonders. “Very few traditional sculpting materials can compare to textiles’ unique combination of strength and lightness. Woven fabrics can be remarkably durable, yet also float upon the slightest breeze. … And textiles can be manipulated in incredible ways through folding, pleating, tearing and more”.
There are many talented soft sculpture artists, including those who specialize in textile and fiber arts, sharing their amazing work on Instagram. Several examples follow.
“Sergio Roger’s work is rooted in his life-long fascination with visual representations of beauty in ancient civilizations, especially the Graeco-Roman era and its modern counterparts” according to his Instagram postings. “The artist reinterprets and subverts iconic elements of art history”. He uses natural textile fibers, such as linen and raw silk, to create sculptures and architectural elements traditionally made from marble.
“Alicja Kozłowska is an award-winning artist and designer based in Poland, renowned for her innovative approach to textile art and embroidery” reports her website. “Drawing inspiration from everyday life, she seeks to redefine and elevate the perception of fiber art and embroidery, transforming these traditional techniques into contemporary, thought-provoking works of art.”
Shown below is Kozłowska’s work called Pisanka Niespodzianka (Easter Egg Surprise) which is an “embroidered felt sculpture made in art quilt technique”.
“Bryony Rose Jennings is a textile sculptor whose enchanting creations bring a magical twist to the animal kingdom” reports the School of Stitched Textiles website. Each of her creatures, including Reynard (the fox shown below), are “lovingly hand-stitched from reclaimed fabrics and found objects. … Working slowly and intuitively, Bryony builds her sculptures around wire armatures, shaping and stuffing cloth until the personality of each animal naturally emerges. Her approach is less about realism and more about storytelling”.
Textile artist Amanda McCavour introduces herself on Instagram with a deceptively simple statement: “I make large-scale embroidered installations using my sewing machine and water soluble fabric”.
“A love of drawing and exploration of ‘line’ in its simplest sense led Amanda to consider working with thread” explains writer Mary Carson. “She loves thread’s fine nature and how, while it appears to be flat, it’s actually a sculptural line. She also enjoys how the transparent pieces move with even the slightest air currents in a room.”
Soft sculpture artist, Mila Zemliakova, “sews plush animal sculptures… using vintage textiles from both her personal and her family’s collection of bedspreads and home décor. … Largely oversized and perched in chairs, the anthropomorphic characters are expressive and often photographed outdoors in states of contemplation and solitude” reports the This is Colossal website. Zemliakova says her work embodies “the connection of Belarusians with their nature, as well as with their traditions, which are now in a dangerous position and under repression”.
Marjolein Dallinga is the artist behind Bloomfelt which is “a global venture into textiles that specializes in the art of felting” according to her website. “One avenue of creative expression for felting … is the design and creation of art objects for interior decoration such as wall hangings, sculptures and other objects, as well as wearable accessories and ornaments”.
Dallinga’s extraordinary artworks are made by “wet felting” a process which uses hot water and repeated agitation and compression to shape wool fibers into the desired form. “Needle felting”, which I wrote about in Needle Felting: Makers Stabbing Wool, also involves shaping wool fibers but, rather than using water, the process uses special felting needles and repeated stabbing to shape wool fibers. Here’s an example of a needle felted soft sculpture from The Gentleman Felter.
In contrast to The Gentleman Felter’s miniature needle-felted wren, Mocha Dick, a soft-sculpted sperm whale, created by Tristin Lowe is massive. I had the pleasure of viewing this life-size whale at the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia a few years ago.
The whale, made of industrial wool felt, is 52-feet long and took up the entire gallery. “Mocha Dick was inspired by the whale that once harassed ships near Mocha Island in the South Pacific Ocean. Described as having flesh as ‘white as wool’, the same whale was the real-life inspiration” for Herman Melville’s epic Moby-Dick states the exhibit card.
“Epic in scope and sprawled across the gallery floor, Mocha Dick has the size and biological details of an actual sperm whale. Lowe achieves this effect through his proficient manipulating of the wool, which mimics the appearance of flesh. The wool is carefully stitched and pieced together over an armature and inflatable device that creates the look of muscular form. Seams and zippers are crafted to appear as harpoon and battle scars, and Lowe hand-attaches wool-crafted barnacles to the whale’s side, which combine to give the whale an older, embattled aura.”
I’ve had the pleasure of viewing a few different soft sculpture exhibitions at museums and art galleries. For instance, the Intricate Oceans: Coral in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, included some stunning soft sculpture art.
The exhibition brought together the work of seven “artists concerned with the degradation of our oceans [who] have turned their attention to the beauty and fragility” of coral. The exhibition overview goes on to explain, “While the news surrounding climate change, pollution, and overfishing is grim and the effect on coral undeniable”, the artists “believe that art has the power to inspire a change in public awareness and support for conservation efforts”.
One of the featured artists is Vanessa Barragão, the textile artist who created this work called Coral Garden.
The stunning artwork is made of wool, Lyocell, jute and metal.
The artist’s statement explains “Amidst textile industry waste, Coral Garden breathes life into discarded fragments. Fashioned from these remnants, it portrays a coral bed, once fading, now aglow with hope. Barragão notes, ‘Every thread tells a tale of struggle, yet weaves resilience into its very fabric. Shades of azure and turquoise, transformed from bleached desolation to vibrant rejuvenation. Intricate textures mirror the coral community’s symbiotic dance, fostering strength and unity. This artwork stands as a beacon, a testament to revival and sustainable hope. Through transformation and collective efforts, life can flourish anew, resilient and glowing with promise.”
Here’s a closer look at some of the Coral Garden details.
I recently visited the Threads of Change: Design & Data exhibition at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). It was described as an “exhibition that explores the intricate connection between humanity and the natural world. By translating scientific data into striking textile installations”.
Some of the textile installations, which I shared in my previous blog post, Atlanta City Break, featured soft sculptures by the Institute for Figuring, “an organization that explores the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics, and technical arts. Their flagship project, the Crochet Coral Reef, merges art and science to address topics like climate change and marine ecology”.
Giant replicas of coral were crocheted and hand-crafted from a variety of materials including yarn, felt, cable ties, videotape, chicken wire, plastic shopping bags and found plastic trash.
This amazing piece is called EA.
MEDUSA is another outstanding soft sculpture piece by the Institute for Figuring.
The artwork of Dr. Karen Norberg, a textile artist and retired child psychiatrist, also caught my eye. Dr Norberg created two pieces―Knitted Brain KB1 and KB2―which are about 1.5 times life size and scientifically accurate. Dr Norberg is reported to have said the “piece was a labor of love [with] two humorous aspects … One was simply to undertake such a ridiculously complex, time-consuming project for no practical reason. The second was the idea of making a somewhat mysterious and difficult object – a brain – out of a ‘cuddly,’ cheerful, familiar material like cotton yarn.”
KB1 illustrates the human brain’s outer structure and KB2 showcases the “hidden ‘deep brain’ structures”. Both KB1 and KB2 are meticulously color coded to highlight brain functions. For instance, blue yarn is used for areas which “process visual information”; yellow yarn is used for areas which “support hearing, language comprehension, and speech production”; and pink yarn is used for areas which “manage memories and emotional responses”.
“The Knitted Brains have been featured in college neuroscience classes, mentioned in Science magazine, and exhibited in multiple museums” according to the exhibit card.
Obviously, not all soft sculptures have such lofty ambitions. In fact, a few of my favorite, simple travel mementos fit the definition of soft sculpture―they are three-dimensional forms incorporating cloth, fiber or other nonrigid materials which has been stuffed, sewn, draped or manipulated in some way.
The silk tassel pictured below is adorned with a trio of stuffed, hand-embroidered butterflies. It is a nice reminder of the time I lived in Singapore.
This one-of-a-kind, needle-felted bird is a treasured find from an art shop in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
This colorful, hand-crocheted fish represents the humble sardine which, thanks to Portugal’s close ties to the fishing industry, is a prominent symbol of Portuguese culture and cuisine. By the way, the small box labelled “Portugal 2019” is one of the Travel Memories Mini Tins I shared in the blog post Curiously Useful Metal Tins Roundup.
“The future of soft sculpture appears promising as artists continue to push boundaries and explore new possibilities within this medium” predicts the article An Introduction to the Art Technique Soft Sculpture on the Think of Art website. “With advancements in technology … artists are finding fresh ways to express their ideas through soft materials” just as Claes Oldenburg did over 60 years ago.
More Info
Previous blog posts mentioned in this blog post include:
. Needle Felting: Makers Stabbing Wool
. Atlanta City Break
. Curiously Useful Metal Tins Roundup.
Instagram postings from the following soft sculpture artists are shared in this blog post:
. Sergio Roger – see more on Instagram or website
. Alicja Kozłowska – see more on Instagram or website
. Bryony Rose Jennings – see more on Instagram or website
. Amanda McCavour – see more on Instagram or website
. Mila Zemliakova – see more on Instagram
. Marjolein Dallinga of Bloomfelt — see more on Instagram or website
. The Gentleman Felter ― from Instagram.
The following books and articles were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. Soft Sculpture book by Carolyn Vosburg Hall which is available here on Internet Archives
. Sculpted Textile Wonders article by Mary Carson on the Textile Artist website
. An Introduction to the Art Technique Soft Sculpture article by Art Guru on the Think of Art website
. The Ordinary Must Not Be Dull: Claes Oldenburg’s Soft Sculptures article on the Pulitzer Arts Foundation website
. AGO History: The Controversial Arrival of Claes Oldenburg’s Floor Burger article and Floor Burger collection listing on the Art Gallery of Ontario website
. 10 Textile Sculptors You Have to Follow article on the School of Stitched Textiles website
. A Menagerie of Contemplative Animals by Mila Zemliakova Weave Textile Traditions and Nature article on the This is Colossal website
. Various Wikipedia entries.
You can learn more about the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia on their website.
Check out the Coastal Discovery Museum website for more info about this facility on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Today’s Takeaways
1. Soft sculpture is an art form leveraging techniques such as sewing, crocheting, felting, embroidering, stuffing, folding and draping to transform nonrigid materials such as cloth and fiber into three-dimensional sculptures.
2. The art of soft sculpture has evolved significantly since Claes Oldenburg introduced his giant hamburger over 60 years ago.
3. “Soft sculpture began as stitched and stuffed realistic fabric forms, but now is made in a variety of delightful and intuitive ways.” Carolyn Vosburg Hall
