Measuring Up takes the form of a light-box viewed within the Kist. It is interpreted through four themes to suggest the historical continuity of the Tolbooth. Each one derives from photographic exploration of the site and related museum artefacts, developed into transparency overlays.
The governer is the clock mechanism from the tower, now confirmed as the oldest section of the Tolbooth. Time's linear cycle rendered as mechanical inflexibility suggests the stern overview of the measure of goods, and chimes with the meting out of justice in a later phase. The stopped clock seen during recent building works implies interregnum before the ensuing arts and entertainment phase of the Tolbooth history.
Control of the commerce within Stirling Burgh was through the weigh-beam, which measured goods for both weight and duty before sale. It is easy to analogise between the goods held in balance and the scales of justice in the succeeding era of court and prison. I used the visual relationship between scales and gallows to suggest the extremity of summary justice for Baird and Hardie in my 1994 Tolbooth installation Respice Funem, itself executed during a less assured phase of the Tolbooth's life. The key, accepted by the Old Jail as genuine, from the Tolbooth cells, is also a graphic reminder of implacable justice.
These timescales are part of the fabric of the Tolbooth, and in the transparancies are each overlaid with a network of scaffolding, denoting flux and transformation.
My thanks for assistance are due to: Stirling Council Archaeological Services, The Smith Art Gallery and Museum; Staff at the Old Jail; Tolbooth site manager, Steve McCafferty; Mike Shields, Seven-Day Signs; Elsi Duncan, D-signs; Alastair and Alban Dickson.