Outsider Pedestals

Krannert Art Museum Exhibit: Bill Traylor, William Edmondson, and the Modernist Impulse.

We were asked by the director of the museum to develop a prototype pedestal for this exhibit of self-taught artists. The pedestals were to display the limestone works of William Edmondson: a man of slave decendents with no formal education, who entered the world of sculpture by a divine command.

The pedestals acted as transitions between the context of the museum and the radically different social, cultural, and spiritual context of the sculpture. To contrast with the materiality of the sculpture, thin pine strips were horizontally stacked in an alternating pinwheel configuration to the desired dimensions. The forms were then stained and belt sanded to expose saw marks and other surface features. This intentional rustication acts as a perceptual frame, an acknowledgement that the work has “traveled” a long way.

The pedestals are now used for the display of models in Architecture Annex One. Their rough-honed surfaces complement the simple utilitarian spaces.