An exhibition currently at Shepparton Art Museum contains works with a soft touch. These works feature an intriguing post-modern artistic transformation that turns hard monumental forms into soft accessible objects. It’s like democracy at play. 

Vanessa Berry writes about the foam bust of Plato by Simon Yates: “Foam rubber is a ubiquitous domestic substance, the stuffing of couches and lounge chair, intended to mould to the shape of the body. when this process is reversed, and human forms are moulded from foam, the utilitarian material becomes animate, its qualities reconfigured. when initially experimenting with foam as a sculptural material Simon noticed that, when carved, it resembled a rock chipped away at by a hammer and chisel. the planes and textures of carved foam initially trick the eye into perceiving the soft material as a more rigid, inflexible substance.” 

SAM will present Soft Core, an exhibition of attention-grabbing 3D works that includes large-scale inflatables, forms made from soft materials, and materials that simply look soft. Soft Core is an exhibition curated by Micheal Do in conjunction with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and toured by Museums and Galleries of NSW. Showing from 27 January to 18 March 2018.

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sculpture | Victoria