Sculptures come in many forms, styles and mediums and are often mixed and multi-media. Sculpture often transcends between the artistic
categories of installation, textiles, ceramics, painting and more.
Some artists transform an ordinary space or object in a sculpture/ installation
Roger Hiorns, Seizure, 2009
In this work Roger Hiorns filled an abandoned flat with copper sulphate to create crystals.
Rachel Whiteread forces the viewer to consider the negative space we occupy, but
often don’t think about. This work Unititled (stairs) 2001, is a cast of
the negative space of a staircase
House, 1996This sculpture is a cast of the
inside of a house, it
causes the viewer to think
differently about the
negative space we occupy on a daily basis
A typical scene can be transformed into a sculpture / installation like this room by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama
Christo famously wrapped the German Parliament building, transforming it into a sculpture
Mona Hartoum transformed this typical scene of a kitchen by running an electric current through
it, this is a political sculpture /installation.
Jim Lambie transformed the space of the famous Tate Art Gallery into a sculpture/ installation with coloured sticky tape
Claus Oldenburg made 3D pop art sculptures, he invented ‘soft sculptures’ in the 1960s, these were soft fabric sculptures of everyday items
Sculpture doesn’t even have to be solid, Donald Judd used light to make sculpture
Alexander Calder makes sculptures from wire and other found materials
Calder used wire and
fabric to make a series of sculptures
based around the circus
Calder also makes mobiles, these are an example of kinetic sculptures because they are are mobile/ moving
Australian artist Robert Kippel
uses found material such as an old piano to
assemble sculptures, this assembling of
objects is called assemblage
Thomas Lannigan Schmidt also works with found materials
Thomas Lannigan Schmidt transforms rubbish into beautiful objects
Another example of assemblage
using found materials (mostly from op-shop and junk shops) is this
work by Melbourne artist
Paul Yore
Paul Yore also makes tapestries:
Another artist who makes tapestries is British artist Grayson Perry
Grayson Perry also makes ceramic sculptures
Below are some soap carvings which mimic natural history exhibitions made by Australian artist Fiona Hall
Ah Xian is an Australian Artist
who came to Australia from
China during the cultural revolution, he makes beautiful ceramic busts with traditional patterns
on them
Fiona Hall uses a variety
of mixed media, here
she uses wire, tupperware and beading
to make a beautiful jelly
fish
Sometimes performance, sculpture and photography intersect. If an ordinary
object can be transformed into a sculpture, so too can the body be a sight and instrument for sculpture. Janine Antoni made sculptures from
soap, lard and chocolate and gnawed, licked or washed them down until they
wore away.
In this sculpture/ performance Janine Antoni gnawed at these 300kg blocks of lard and chocolate spitting it out
Then Antoni used the
chocolate and lard she had
gnawed off to make
chocolate boxes and
lipstick cases
Pip and Pop are Australian Artists who make entire fantastical words out of sugar, food dye
and found materials
Melbourne fashion label Romance Was Born collaborated with Pip and Pop at their most recent fashion show
Fashion can be considered as textile sculpture
Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier made this leopard skin entirely out of beads
This mermaid by JPG transcends the boundary between sculpture and fashion
British artist Sheila Hicks uses wool to make massive sculptures by weaving and knitting wool
Local Indigenous artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey makes sculptures from weaving