Exploring the Embodiment of Female Consciousness in the Soft Sculpture of Contemporary Chinese Artists

Abstract

In the current era when the internationalization trend of soft sculpture art is significant, soft sculpture has transcended the category of marginalized art forms, which is attributed to the continuous exploration and practice of soft sculpture artists. In the process of female artists creating soft sculptures, the significance of soft fibres has transcended the simple material level, carrying rich social, cultural and emotional information. Artists do not merely create soft sculptures; instead, they use soft materials as a medium to deeply explore more macroscopic issues such as identity, boundaries, labour, and memory. Therefore, this study focuses on the creative practices of contemporary Chinese female soft sculptors and uses interpretive phenomenological analysis methods to deeply explore how they carry female consciousness through soft materials in their works. The research will select representative cases of female artists, analyse the intrinsic connections among their creative concepts, material choices and thematic expressions, aiming to reveal the diverse presentation forms of female consciousness in the unique artistic context of soft sculpture, as well as how this expression reflects the construction and deconstruction process of female identity in the context of social and cultural changes. At present, there are relatively few studies on female soft sculpture artists. This study, by collecting data and conducting in-depth analysis, aims to provide new theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence for contemporary Chinese soft sculpture art. This study employed the methods of literature review, semi-structured interviews, and observation for data collection and analysed the semi-structured interviews using the interpretive phenomenology analysis method.