Throughout his practice, Gabriel Kuri has turned to everyday objects as analytical tools, using modest materials to probe systems of value, measurement, and risk. The matchstick—a familiar, utilitarian object—has appeared in his work before, often enlarged, doubled, or otherwise displaced from its ordinary function. In error bars (2025), this motif returns in a new configuration, recast as a sculptural diagram drawn from the visual language of statistics.

Mounted directly onto the wall, six elongated, double-headed matchsticks are arranged side by side in a horizontal alignment. Each unit is burned through at its midpoint, leaving a darkened band that separates two chromatic zones: cooler tones at one end, warmer hues at the other. The matchsticks vary in length and spacing, their alignment suggesting a diagram or chart—recognizable in structure, yet resistant to interpretation. Kuri draws on the graphic convention of error bars, which in data visualization mark uncertainty, deviation, and the limits of precision. Here, those margins are rendered in wood and pigment, producing a form that resembles a measuring device without measurements, a framework emptied of numbers.

Kuri’s sculptures become carriers of associations such as ignition and risk while remaining permanently inert. The scorched center records a moment of contact with heat, a trace of an action that endangered the object’s function through the very force it’s designed to generate. Color plays a structuring role: borrowed from everyday risk-coding conventions, the progression from turquoise blues to yellows and reds suggests an escalation of stakes. In error bars, Kuri renders the instruments of prediction tactile but undecipherable, foregrounding the speculative nature of the systems we rely on to measure the future.