this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Traditional Art
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From dabblers to masters, obscure to popular and ancient to futuristic, this is an inclusive community dedicated to showcasing all types of art by all kinds of artists, as long as they're made in a traditional medium
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I think its interesting. and I love that they chose an every day object.
just because its not a scantily clad lady doesn't make the sculpture uninteresting. and art doesn't need to be busy to make you feel.
The pillow as subject seems to promise intimacy or rest, yet here it is only an idea of softness — neither emotionally nor materially transformed. Nothing is being done with it.
One of the techinal aspects of sculpture is the artist’s interaction with material — how stone becomes flesh, how metal can suggest pliancy, or how touch is rendered visible. In the case of a pillow sculpture, there’s a lost opportunity to explore tactility, resistance, and transformation. Mg point is that the work’s fragility reads as a lack of engagement. The material doesn’t invite exploration; it simply claims fragility to be content. In sculptural traditions texture embodies experience — the compression of skin, the fold of cloth — this piece stops at the surface. The aesthetic effect is there but the content is lacking.
In sculpting the body, artists are always bound by a system of proportions, expectations, and recognitions — what a body should be. A pillow, by contrast, belongs to the infinite: every crease or fold can be justified (although I don't doubt his technical mastery). The pillow permits indifference for the artist, whatever is fine, there is no perfection to aim for. And this might sound like I dislike minimalist or abstract art, I dont, its some if my absolute favourite.
The pillow’s surface suggests softness, but without a counterforce, softness remains pointless. In great sculpture, touch is relational — pressure against pressure. Here, there is no resistance, no gesture, no human tension. Softness without subject.
OK there is a fold at best.
Minimalism demands restraint, but without content it is empty. There is a lack of tension or narrative.
The pillow is inherently charged with intimacy — it bears the body as its purpose. Again on its own, it is made sterile.
Any depth to the idea is forced.
I could argue for it, claiming the point is to show the existence of smth that is created for humans without any humanity. The fold shows the effect of a human but with no human there. We're focusing on absence. But the sculpture isnt forcing this thought, I'm bringing everything into this myself.
Very disappointed thats what you think I'm asking for.
You write a lot here just to deny the artist the freedom to iterate on and perfect an idea. Just the fact that it's difficult to make a realistic pillow out of stone seems to me to be an interesting premise. Let them be. It clearly interests them, and me too. I'd love to see a gallery full of those pillows.
The pillow's meaning as the subject is for the artist to know and the person taking in the art to interpret based on their own lens of the world. your interpretation isn't invalid, but it doesn't invalidate any other's interpretation either.
does art need to adhere to all these rules you've said? or are these simply your interpretations of the art.
you seem like bodies carved into marble and I think that's wonderful. but it doesn't mean marble should be only for that type of subject.
-"The pillow’s surface suggests softness, but without a counterforce, softness remains pointless. In great sculpture, touch is relational — pressure against pressure. Here, there is no resistance, no gesture, no human tension. Softness without subject."
that's an interesting point for sure, but I think aesthetic and warmth can come from the strangest examples. and I'd love to have one of these pillows because I find them interesting to look at. I also love the material choice for the pieces.
knowledge about form and material and lighting and what materials do and don't do is wonderful. but none of it is needed to truly appreciate something.
-"The pillow is inherently charged with intimacy — it bears the body as its purpose. Again on its own, it is made sterile.
Any depth to the idea is forced."
oh god I don't get intimacy from this at all. it seems that we just view this differently. and that is how it's all meant to be!
-"Very disappointed thats what you think I'm asking for."
I just meant that it doesn't have to fit your view of the medium of choice and subject to be 'good'.
also... do keep in mind this is on a meme post about thirst traps and images taken of marble sculptures from underbelly angles to make them appear sexy. lol
doesn't have to be so heavy and serious all the time. the point of it is to make you feel.