The concept of “medium specificity” was made famous by Clement Greenberg and is often viewed as the goal and grand finale of “Modern Art”. In short, painting shouldn’t strive to be something other than a painting. Paintings are flat and made out of paint; an attempt at anything else is either dishonest or should be left in the hands of another medium (three-dimensionality to sculpture, narrative to theatre, etc).
Large belief systems are a lot like tempered glass - if one tiny part is damaged, the whole thing tends to explode into a million pieces. Try announcing a 50% belief in the Bible at church, that you’re a vegan except for bacon, or that Sarah Palin is 10% right. When Modernism ended, it was obliterated. Dozens of movements followed it, each 100% disagreeing with it in a different direction: Pop, Fluxus, photorealism, conceptualism, and post-modernism (a name which says “we don’t really have a name, we just want to be clear that we’re not modernism”).
But just because Jackson Pollock “achieved” pure medium specific painting (Greenberg’s pure ideal of paint representing only paint), it doesn’t mean that “medium specificity” was a bad idea, nor does it mean that the finish line is ruined for the other mediums just because painting got there first. I enjoy applying the idea to dance, theatre, sculpture, photography – not as the “absolute” truth of art, but just as an interesting perspective on things. The medium specificity of sculpture isn’t discussed much - perhaps because no one cares who got to the moon second; perhaps because it’s just harder to define with sculpture.
I would like to submit that Sarah Braman’s sculptures are not telling a story, they are not about any particular medium or technique, they are truly medium specific sculptures that focus entirely on the one quality that makes sculpture unique: timeless three-dimensionality. My definition of three-dimensionality is as follows: there is no “front” or “back” (or “correct” viewing point), and they are best viewed while in motion (presumably walking around them)…. Something is medium specific if it CANNOT be translated into another medium. Pollock didn’t make sculptures and Braman’s work dies when translated by a camera into two dimensions. She’s not the only sculptor doing it (see also Joel Shapiro), but again like Pollock, she’s just doing it cooler than anyone else.
P.S. I do not support Sarah Palin in any way.