Aesthetic Research On Soft Sculpture

As an artistic phenomenon,“Soft Sculpture” came into the public view in 1916 by French artist Marcel Duchamp’s “Soft Typewriter Cover”.In the 1960 s,Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz formally put forward the artistic term of “Soft Sculpture” in the field of fiber art,and combined it with the rise of female art.Due to the out-sync between the “appearance” of soft sculpture in the field of sculpture art and its “being famed” in the field of fiber art,it makes the cognition expression and understanding on “soft sculpture” vague and ambiguity in different art categories.So,here is the question,how to define the “Soft Sculpture” academically and objectively?What are the aesthetic characteristics of soft sculpture?In terms of appearance,soft sculpture breaks through the coldness and hardness of traditional sculpture with its warmth and softness,and presents the characteristics of “close to the people”.The way of artistic expression has greatly changed the face of the development of traditional sculpture with its diversified creative paradigm,multi-dimensional artistic ideas and diverse artistic expressions.So how did the“breakthrough” and “change” of soft sculpture to traditional sculpture happen and develop? How is it embodied? What is its inner logic and essence? These issues become the topics explored in this dissertation.This dissertation conducts an in-depth discussion on this through five chapters.Firstly,based on the tracing of the source of the concept “sculpture”,this dissertation not only discusses how the soft sculpture emerged,but also analyzes the historical evolution of soft sculpture since the 20 th century,thus clearly defines the concept of“soft sculpture”.Secondly,this dissertation discusses on the material language,modeling language and space language of soft sculpture,trying to explore the construction of “lifestyle” in the ontology language of soft sculpture.In another word,it analyses how soft sculpture constructs the relationship between art and life,art and people,art and society through its soft material,flowing plastic and spatial steering by removable basement.Finally,the dissertation makes an overall reflection on the aesthetic core of soft sculpture art in life,and puts forward that soft sculpture carries the “Tao” of life closely related to human beings with its warm and soft “object”.It is found that,soft sculpture breaks through the “rigidity” of traditional sculpture material and embodies the characteristics of “softness”,“fragility” and“warmth”.Soft material,a kind of “non-traditional material”,is involved in artistic creation in the form of its own unique “object” with temperature and connotation derived from life.Therefore,based on the relationship between objecthood of soft material and “human self”,it constructs various humanistic solicitude and thinking related to art,human and life.Meanwhile,soft sculpture breaks the “constant” of traditional hard-material sculpture and embodies the “process” characteristics of“flow” and “perishable”,which provoking the thinking of “eternal” at the artistic spiritual level and “momentary” at the physical level.In a way of “materialization of memory”,the flowing and changeable modeling language of soft sculpture respects the equally unstable and perishable nature,people and life itself.Hence,due to the soft material and variable plastic,soft sculpture breaks through the limitation of traditional hard sculpture “basement” and presents the characteristics of expanded field.Thus,by integrating with other art forms,and with the body perception of artists and viewers,soft sculpture realizes the expansion of time and space,and leads to the transformation of its field and the integration of interaction.At the same time,soft sculpture gradually goes out of the art museum and steps into the public domain,and constructs the Life-field based on daily life.Through the linkage with people and life,it triggers people’s self-awareness and thinking about life,art and survival space issues.Therefore,from the outside to the inside,this dissertation explores how the new aesthetic form generated is based on the generation of the logical relationship of fluidity,daily life and reflection,which is different from traditional aesthetics and eliminates the sense of artistic sanctity.Through the above research,the author believes that the “soft sculpture” in the“field of sculpture” is not a contradictory relationship between the traditional “hardmaterial sculpture” and the “field of fiber art”.They take “soft sculpture” as the connection point and build a relationship of inheritance,development and complementarity based on the logic of “Life Oriented”.Soft sculpture,originating from life but beyond life,conveys the aesthetic experience through the body perception.Soft sculpture thus leads to the self-concern of “human self”,human living,life and survival issues,and the prospect of all round development of human beings.