During my thematic group crit I got the idea to experiment with different materials when making my cushions. I had started to explore binary opposites and such with the idea of harsh truths and facts on something soft, gentle and innocent, so what about emphasising these opposites with the materials as well?
I decided to experiment with wire to begin with and created a small maquette using my small fabric cushions as my template. I tried different ways of wrapping the wire around, and trying to get it secure and cushion like. It was difficult at first as the wire wouldn't attach properly and would be loose and easily fall apart. After a few tries I managed to get some sort of maquette shape made and it looked really interesting.
For added effect I decided to add some of my soft filling that I used for my first cushions inside the wire to add the softness back into the maquette. I really liked this juxtaposition of softness and hardness, and having the soft filling exposed really adds to this notion. I think my next step is to make a bigger piece, possibly the same size as my bigger cushions and even document them in places where you would normally find cushions, such as the home.
I also want to experiment with other materials such as clay, and possibly even etch in some text to bring the ideas female identity and feminism back into the piece. I think this idea of using non-conventional materials as a means of making something soft looking is really interesting, and is something that I might display along with my soft cushions, in the interim show to really show this juxtaposition.
For research and inspiration I think I'm going to look up the works of Rachel Whiteread and her mattresses that she made out of solid materials such as plaster and rubber, I think this will help give me some more context behind this idea and hopefully give me some more ideas of how to position them and go about making them.