soft sculpture

American  

noun

1. sculpture principally in vinyl, canvas, or other flexible material reproducing objects of characteristically rigid construction, as an electric fan, a typewriter, a set of drums, or a bathtub, in forms having a malleable texture and a liquescent, somewhat deflated appearance.

---

Other Word Forms

• soft-sculpture
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of soft sculpture

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

The piece casts intriguing shadows, as do Cindy Winnick’s soft sculpture of a dancer with oversize feet and Mahy Polymeropoulos’s “Sea Urchin,” which reduces the creature to a nest of blue wires.

From Washington Post • May 27, 2022

The 12-foot-diameter, mostly soft sculpture is designed for lounging, which complements the rest of the work.

From Washington Post • Jul. 22, 2021

The show’s centerpiece is a Claes Oldenburg-style soft sculpture, paradoxically made from painting materials.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 12, 2020

Made of mainly sewn-together pieces of colored vinyl, it evokes the soft sculpture of Claes Oldenburg.

From New York Times • Apr. 9, 2010

There is something of soft sculpture in it, but there is also something psychic in it.

From Time Magazine Archive