Snuggle up to this: Student sculptor makes the largest sock monkey sculpture
Art student Emilia Evans-Munton (UK) took on a gargantuan project for her degree show – making the world’s largest sock monkey sculpture ever!
The Glasgow School of Art student really went all out, creating one that was 15.10 m (49 ft 6 in) long – about the size of a semi-truck!
To make this cuddly creature, 22-year-old Emilia used 60 metres of corduroy fabric to cover the monkey and 40 straw bales to give it structure. She said: “I repurposed recycled scaffolding board/wood into the giant buttons for the eyes, which were 1.5 metres wide each.”
I guess you could say Emilia attempted this project with wide eyes.
Originally, Emilia started making her record-breaking art as a passion project and had no intent on breaking the record title. She said: “A large part of my sculpture practice is focused on scale, and making my adult audience feel small again in comparison to such a big object to encourage the (perhaps repressed) childlike fascination that exists in us all.”
Playing with scale is not unique to Emilia’s sculpture style.
As she continued to work on her project, Emilia said: “My dad pointed out it was probably the largest in the world and encouraged me to contact Guinness World Records.”
Earning a Guinness World Records title was an added bonus to the piece. Getting the sock monkey into the record books is important to Emilia because of the meaning behind the installation.
“The piece is an ode to the toys that are left behind, and the painful pang of losing one’s favourite toy as a child,” Emilia said. “The sock monkey came from me finding an old sock monkey I had made as a part of a series of sock monkeys for all the girls in my class at primary school as a leaving present. I sat down with my Mum and my Nana and together we created this production line of monkeys, which were gifted to each girl in my class, and I started to wonder where they are now.”
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Unique to many art pieces that one would experience in a museum, Emilia wants her audience to interact with the monkey. She said: “The more bashed and deflated a soft toy is, the more it has been loved. The interaction from the audience allows the rediscovery of their love for their once-favourite toys, all the while showering the sock monkey with a newfound love.”
The enormous snuggle buddy really has something to say about finding childlike wonder in adulthood.
Emilia installed the structure at the Field Manoeuvres Festival in Norfolk, UK, to allow for this audience interaction. She said on top of the week it took to sew the monkey it took an additional “week to build, and another week to take it apart again at the end, with the help of some kind and enthusiastic helpers!” The hard work was definitely paid off when festival goers got to experience playing with their favourite toy again.
After taking down the structure, Emilia needed a place to store it. Similar to where she found the sock monkey that began this project, Emilia said: “The sock monkey has been unstuffed, washed at a launderette and rolled up and is in my Nana’s loft, which is pretty ironic considering the meaning of the piece, but he hasn’t been forgotten about.”
Considering the monkey used 60 metres of fabric, the stuffed animal surely will not go unseen in that loft.