Positions sculptor's head cutting into sculptures (8)
I believe the answer is:
statuses
'positions' is the definition.
('status' can be a synonym of 'position')
'sculptor's head cutting into sculptures' is the wordplay.
'sculptor's head' becomes 's' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cutting into' indicates putting letters inside.
'sculptures' becomes 'statues' (statue is a kind of sculpture).
's' inserted into 'statues' is 'STATUSES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for statuses that I've seen is " positions".)