Certain Measures

by Sonja van Kerkhoff, 1993
(versions remade in 2002)

Certain Measures, 1993, the European Art Schools Exhibition, MECC, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

In the sculpture, Certain Measures, which is a large bar-height table with some sticks scattered on it, I was responding to the general suspicion of ´ethics´ in the Netherlands. Religion, in my view, really gets a hard time because of this.

I believe we need ethical laws in order to function while it is each individual´s responsibility to work out how to apply these to their own lives. These are ´tools´ for the spirit.

Certain Measures, 1999, The Stoke Newington Library Gallery, London.




Certain Measures, 2000, Sarjeant Gallery,
Wanganui / Whanganui, New Zealand / Aotearoa. 		Certain Measures, 2000,
Blue Pacific Gallery, Pataka Museum,
Porirua, New Zealand.
Photo: Jill Studd.

Certain Measures, 2000. Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui / Whanganui,
New Zealand / Aotearoa.





Certain Measures, 2002,

Four sticks with gold-coloured texts in Romanian
burned into the wood. Each stick is 1500 cm long.
Collection of the Museé d'art compare, Singeorz-Bai, Romania.





"Certain Measures" bears texts from the "Hidden Words" a book of wisdom sayings by Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith.

The texts are engraved along the sides of four wooden rods and the intention is that you need to hold or move the rods in order to read all texts. I have made these rods - I call them 'tools for the spirit' - in English and in Dutch and now in Romanian.

I made the Romanian rods twice as large, partly because I had to engrave these texts by hand, and partly to give them a larger-than-life feel in an outdoor-in-nature setting.

Click to
view a detail


Click to view a detail		 Certain Measures, 2002.

Other views in
the Singeorz-Bai Public Park, Romania.


Three sticks are in English and five are in Dutch, shown at the CBK in Leiden, 2003.




In the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui / Whanganui, New Zealand / Aotearoa, 2000.


Eight sticks (three in English, five in Dutch) on a table at the Irish Bahai Summerschool, Waterford, August 2006.








Eight sticks (three in English, five in Dutch) on a table at the Irish Bahai Summerschool, Waterford, Ireland, August 2006.






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SHOWN
YearFestival or Exhibition
2003CBK (Centre for Visual Arts), Leiden, The Netherlands.
2002As part of the Colonising Oxford project, Oxford, U.K.
2002Romanian version made for the Singeorz-Bai International Sculpture symposium, Romania.
2000Keep Off The Grassshow which toured: Te Wa, Wanganui, Artscape Gallery, Palmerston North, Blue Pacific Gallery, Pataka Museum, Porirua, New Zealand.
2000Korero Korero, Telling Stories, Exhibition with Sarah Buist, Sargeant Gallery / Te Whare o Rehua
W(h)anganui, New Zealand.
1999Diversity, Galleria Halvare, Oulu, Finland.
1999Word, Stoke Newington Library Gallery, London, U.K.
1993European Art Schools Biennale, MECC, Maastricht, The Netherlands.




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