Peter Kirkiles: Measuring Up

May – October, 2025

Artist Peter Kirkiles creates large-scale sculptures of vintage tools. By enlarging rulers, levels, and pencils to a monumental size, he shifts our attention to their importance- not only how they are used but who uses them.

For the exhibition, Peter Kirkiles: Measuring Up, the artists displays a 14-foot sculpture of an antique wooden folding ruler titled Sentinel in front of the museum’s 1782 colonial home. The scale of the sculpture plays with the size of the building and also relates to the human form; the ruler is positioned standing, with ends moving apart like striding legs. Sentinel is constructed from bronze over a metal armature. Kirkiles has added a patina which makes the surface look like aged wood, and he hand stenciled each numeral on the sculpture to achieve the look of a vintage ruler.

Three additional metal sculptures of folding rulers by Kirkiles are sited around the museum’s grounds and inside the building, including Balanced Rule, Backwards Rule, and Anchor.

Peter Kirkiles: Measuring Up is part of the Cahoon Museum’s annual Streetside Series which commissions artists to create new, innovative, and accessible public art for all to enjoy on the museum’s grounds.

Kirkiles maintains an active studio in Northwestern Connecticut and works professionally as an art conservation technician. This occupation requires extensive knowledge of tools, precision components, and surface finishes. Kirkiles’ choice to select a vintage tool draws attention to the history of manufacturing and a time when tradespeople created things by hand and took pride in the mastery of their craft. Not only does the artist use tools to create his sculptures, tools serve -reverently- as his subject.