The Exhibition

29 May

SCULPTURE

Claes Oldenburg (born 1929)

Soft drum set, 1969

wood, linen, cord with silkscreen printing h 24.8, w 48, d 35 cm Purchased with the aid of a Government Grant (V&A Fund), 1981

 I hadn't quite realised what a versatile 'material' fabric actually can be. Although, of course, that is not strictly true, having worked with artist Michael Kidner and looked at the way he uses fabric as a way of exploring the (im)possibilities of science. Claes Oldenburg's Miniature Soft Drum Set (no. 112 from an edition of 200) not only sets up a very witty dialogue between the object itself and that which the object signifies, but also explores the use of fabric in more formal terms. Oldenburg describes, in the information that accompanies the object, that he was struggling to find a way of visualising through drawing a large version of the Soft Drum Set so that the model - or miniature version - became "a three-dimensional drawing". Thus, Oldenburg uses fabric as a creative tool as well as a creative device.
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