Artist Statement

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Non Misurarmi (Don't Measure Me) finds its conceptual roots in the defiance of Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623), a Venetian polymath and priest who fiercely defended the Republic's liberties and the separation of Church and state. For his polemical critique of papal authority, Sarpi survived an assassination attempt near Campo Santa Fosca in Venice, Italy — the very site where this project is installed.

 

Unfolding as a trilogy of spatial interventions, Non Misurarmi scatters three wooden rulers across the location. Each object bears a handwritten inscription: "Who are the rulers?", "Non esistono unità identiche." (No two units are the same.), and "Nessun metro mi misura." (No measure measures me.) Together, they form a conceptual progression: interrogating the source of authority, dismantling the illusion of standardised systems, and culminating in a final act of individual sovereignty.

 

Sarpi's struggle from over four centuries ago remains profoundly relevant today. Through this work, I want to remind the audience that true individuality requires an independent, critical consciousness—one that actively resists being defined, quantified, or limited by the rigid standards we so often follow blindly.

 

Wai Kit Lam

London, United Kingdom

4.2026

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