Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials, typically stone such as marble, metal, glass or woo or plastic materials such as clay, textiles, polymers and softer metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light. Found objects may be presented as sculptures. Materials may be worked by removal such as carving or they may be assembled such as by welding, hardened such as by firing, or molded or cast. Surface decoration such as paint may be applied. Sculpture has been described as one of the plastic art because it can involve the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated.


Sculpture is an important form of public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden. Many different forms of sculpture were used in Asia, with many pieces being religious based on Hinduism and Buddhism (Buddhist art) and Greco-Buddhist art. A great deal of Cambodian Hindu sculpture is preserved at Angkor; however organized looting has had a heavy impact on many sites around the country. In Thailand, sculpture was almost exclusively of Buddha images. Many Thai sculptures or temples are gilded, and on occasion enriched with inlays. See also Thai art.


Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze". Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Their strength and lack of brittleness is an advantage when figures in action are to be created, especially when compared to various ceramic or stone materials. Casting is a manufacturing process by which a liquid material is poured into a mold which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape and then allowed to solidify. The solid casting is then ejected or broken out to complete the process. Casting may be used to form hot liquid metals or various materials that cold set after mixing of components. Casting is a 6,000-year-old process