7 Artists on Soft Sculptures: Why Artists Turn to Textile

Why It Matters

Soft‑sculpture’s blend of sustainability, personal narrative, and sensory engagement reshapes contemporary art markets and encourages a cultural return to hands‑on craftsmanship.

Key Takeaways

• Artists seek tactile softness amid a world of hard materials.
• Hand‑crafted crochet replaces needles, enabling large‑scale textile sculptures.
• Recycled garments become “second skins” that conceal identity and bias.
• Material choice emphasizes nostalgia, sustainability, and personal storytelling.
• Soft sculptures invite viewers to pause, sense, and reimagine daily objects.

Summary

The video gathers seven contemporary artists who explain why they gravitate toward soft, textile‑based sculpture. They argue that the tactile quality of yarn, fabric, and found materials offers a counterpoint to the dominance of hard media such as metal, stone, and plastic, fulfilling a collective yearning for softness in an increasingly rigid world.

Key insights include the development of hand‑crocheted techniques that forgo needles, allowing massive, fluid forms; the communal studio process of dyeing and cutting cotton strips; and the intentional use of discarded clothing, buttons, and even synthetic hair extensions. By constructing “second skins” that mask gender, race, and class, the artists force viewers to confront the work without preconceived judgments.

Notable examples feature an artist who repurposes his late father’s shirts as protective armor, another who draws on Waldorf school weaving traditions, and a third who celebrates Nordic textile heritage while subverting mass‑produced fabrics. These anecdotes illustrate how personal memory, cultural lineage, and pop‑culture references converge in the material choices.

The broader implication is a shift toward sustainable, experiential art that re‑engages audiences with craft, tactile perception, and ecological consciousness. As textile sculpture gains visibility, it challenges market conventions, expands the definition of fine art, and invites consumers to reconsider everyday objects as vessels of meaning.

Original Description

”With so many hard things that we touch and live in, we’re crying for softness.” Sheila Hicks, Nick Cave, Kaarina Kaikkonen, and four other acclaimed artists reflect on how working with textiles has shaped their practice.

“Every knot has a breath,” says Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, whose immersive sculptures in cotton invite a sensory escape from everyday reality. American artist Nick Cave describes his work as “figurative sculptural,” where textiles and discarded materials suggest a “second skin” that conceals gender, race, and class.

For Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen, second-hand shirts carry a sense of intimacy and memory. After losing her father as a child, she recalls: “I wanted to wear his clothes around me.” Similarly, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota uses dresses as stand-ins for the body, with threads tracing the invisible connections between humans.

The video also features Dutch artist Claudy Jongstra and Icelandic artist Shoplifter.

Interviews: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen, Marc-Christoph Wagner, Jonas Hjorth, Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan, Stinna Toft Hald, Sean Hanley and Anders Mørch.

Camera: Mark Nickels, Rasmus Quistgaard, Jonas Hjorth and Anders Mørch.

Produced and edited by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026

Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond.

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