Pam Lins Explores Pedestal's Identity in Sculptural Exhibition at Rachel Uffner Gallery

Pam Lins presented new sculptures at Rachel Uffner Gallery from September 12 to October 24, 2010, located at 47 Orchard Street in New York City. The exhibition featured six standing, ornamented boxes with paintings propped on top, functioning as restless Brancusian plinths. Lins commissioned a painting from Jessica Dickinson and referenced Constantin Brancusi's studio fireplace as displayed at the Pompidou Center. Her work explores the ambiguous role of pedestals as furniture, scale models, or sculptural elements themselves. Two paintings in the show derive from photographs of famous marbles: Bernini's Medusa and French's Lincoln Memorial. Lins created a conceptual textbook titled 'The Fifth Leg: A Psychological History of Sculpture,' existing only as commissioned photographs. The exhibition connects to Brancusi's photographic studio shots currently displayed at MoMA's 'The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today.' Lins previously exhibited at Rachel Uffner Gallery in 2009 with pedestals wrapped in stripes, referencing Anne Truitt. The current works feature hard-edge painting techniques with tape bleed and asymmetry, or vintage muscle car pigments for finish-fetish luster. Printed versions of 'The Fifth Leg' text were available to gallery visitors.