What Is Sculpture?
A quick list of common materials and methods used to make sculpture
What comes to mind when you think of sculpture? How do you know if you're looking at a piece of sculpture? And how is sculpture made anyway?
A sculpture is a three-dimensional art object which can represent animate (human, animal, botanical, aquatic) or inanimate forms, communicate the sculptor’s interpretation of abstract ideas, or express, or evoke certain emotions. They can be created singly or in groups.
In essence, sculpture is the assembly of a mass of ordinary material so that it expresses something that transcends its parts. Although most sculpture involves shaping or re-shaping materials, this is not strictly necessary. A sculpture may consist of a collection of objects or material that may not have been altered but are instead arranged in a meaningful way.
Contemporary sculpture can employ a wide variety of materials which are worked in myriad ways. These include the:
- carving of wood, stone, plaster, cement, bone, ice and snow
- welding of metal (steel and copper) plates, rods, girders
- twisting and wrapping of wire
- modeling of forms in clay, wax and plaster
- casting of bronze, steel and plastic
- working of iron and copper
- blowing or moulding of glass
- coating of objects in resin
- forming, cutting and mounting of paper and cardboard
- sewing, gluing, mounting, hanging and starching of textiles and rope
- stuffing of textile or rubber forms
- knitting or crocheting of yarn or other material
- selection and mounting of a collection of objects or material
- piling, pressing or gluing of sand
- creating large-scale earth- or waterworks through landscaping or digging
- installing lenses, lights, cameras, monitors, musical instruments or sound equipment
- installing wind-, solar-, water- or conventionally powered machines
- creation of a set of instructions to be carried out by the audience member
Because sculpture is three-dimensional, we tend to experience its physicality before its other qualities. Its size, shape, mass and sense of movement appeals to our senses of sight and touch and demand that we consider ourselves in relation to it.
Moreover, every step of its creation demands physical effort on the part of the sculptor: selecting and preparing material, building supporting forms, reducing the original mass, manipulating materials, employing construction techniques, finishing, disassembly and reassembly, packing and transportation, and display.
A piece of sculpture can be as monumental as the Sphinx or as miniscule as a Guatemalan worry doll; each has its unique qualities. And as we feel our way around it, we may come to gain insight into own emotional worlds, our fellow human beings as well as the physical world around us.
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