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Soft Sculpture

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An engaging new exhibition is unleashed in which everyday objects take on new meanings.

Editorial


"Soft sculpture" was the name given to a new form of sculpture that rose up in the early 1960s, closely tied to the Pop art movement in New York and the movement's main sculptor, Claes Oldenburg. The majority of Oldenburg's works from the early '60s were primarily concerned with the all-American by-products of capitalism: consumerism, mass-production and excess. As such, gigantic soft sculptures of hamburgers made from vinyl and other plastics took their place in the rarefied domain of the white cube, becoming a wry joke on the importance placed on these mass cultural "artefacts".

Featuring the work of Oldenburg, surrealist Meret Oppenheim and latter-day mystic Joseph Beuys among others, Soft Sculpture showcases works from the National Gallery's own collection from the '60s, '70s and '90s. The works fall under the loose definition of what makes "soft sculpture" and use an array of objects and materials not often associated with traditional sculpture such as plastics, felt, fur, hemp and latex.

Featuring wall hangings made of cloud-like white shopping bags, a beer mug with an attached squirrel, and a sheep strapped down to a leather chair, presumably about to be sheered, Soft Sculpture is a fantastic representation of one of the most dynamic and culturally relevant and observant movements within modern art.

Bags 1994 Lauren Berkowitz Collection of the artist Installed at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, 1998 Photograph: John Gollings

Julianne Gill

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