This Sculpture Made of Pillows Reminds Us of the Cozy Side of Staying at Home
Staying home indefinitely during a pandemic, even though it’s a privilege, can make anyone feel confined and anxious. But one artist wants to remind us that home can also be a place of comfort and play, and he’s captured that feeling with a recent installation — a ceiling-high sculpture made of pillows.
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The piece, created by French artist Cyril Lancelin, is called “Pyramid Pillow.” It’s made up of a bed surrounded on three sides by large pillows that rise to a point like your mind floating up into a dream.
With its soothing color palette — soft grays, blues, and purples — the structure evokes the cozy, whimsical feeling of a blanket fort.
“To make the series of images, the artist chose cushions to symbolize the idea of the house as a cozy nest, a place of rest and above all of security,” wrote designboom, which shared the photos of “Pyramid Pillow” as part of its DIY submissions feature. “Through this pandemic that we are all experiencing, staying at home is the most important tool at our disposal.”
“With this project Lancelin also hopes to encourage other creatives to stay at home and share ideas through their work. Even if the world of culture and exhibitions are currently on pause, our social ties can still be united through the sharing of art and design.”
Lancelin has made many other sculptures on this scale before, often using multiples of one object to create a large shape: pyramids made of balls or tubes; stars made of baguettes or giant strawberries; even a flamingo floatie made of flamingo floaties.
“Pyramid Pillow” is one example of an artist playfully responding to the challenge of isolation. Spanish artist Max Enrich inspired others to join him on Instagram when he made chairs out of household objects like boxes of pasta. And the Getty Museum asked people to recreate famous works of art from home, leading the Natural History Museum to respond with its own diorama challenge.
If we’re at home already, might as well build a fort and make some art.