Reconstruction of ideal body perception in contemporary sculpture

This thesis focuses on the reconstruction of the human body, which has moved away from limitations in contemporary sculpture practices. The human body in sculpture has witnessed changing trends, conceptual contents and formal transformations from the archaic period to the present day. Each age is the determinant of a new society and body depiction unique to itself. The fact that the body has gained meaning in a wide variety of typologies in the process from history to today is directly related to the dominance of the norms and ideologies established in line with the values created by the society over the body. In traditional sculpture, the human body is idealized to reflect an orderly and moral society. In the late 19th century, modernist thought pioneered innovative and subversive approaches to the representation of the body in art. Modernism put an end to the dominance of traditional thought by creating a great destruction on the judgments that were considered ideal and unquestionable. During this period, artists explored the images of the human body in sculpture in innovative ways, using different perspectives and techniques. In the contemporary period, the body, which has been reconstructed after intellectual and physical disintegration, has created a space for the viewer to think deeply about and experience concepts such as meaning, perception, definition, etc. Through anti-aesthetic and non-ideal works in contemporary sculpture, complex issues such as identity, perception and existence have become reflections of the body, transforming them into a call for discovery. Keywords: Body, Ideal, Contemporary Art, Sculpture