DAVE GHILARDUCCI: DELAYED GRATIFICATION
July 14–September 25, 2009
Curated by Emily Phelps
In Parker Gallery
Are you sick and tired of struggling for results? Well, you’re in luck: WE CAN’T HELP YOU. Delayed Gratification offers a stationary test drive into a world of leaking desires and technological insurgence that may be ours or someone else’s…all we know for sure is you’ll have to get a sweat on. San Diego artist Dave Ghilarducci will install a bicycle with a generator connected to the back wheel that will power an LED display. When the visitor climbs on the bicycle and takes a ride, the LED will project words of wisdom from books that discuss utopian and dystopian views of the future.
Ghilarducci’s participatory work investigates perception on an everyday level, often using popular technology as the subject and object of artistic inquiry. Delayed Gratification playfully confronts the contemporary paradigm that if man willingly submits to technology he will become more efficient and therefore lead a more meaningful life. The artwork complicates the matter by creating a forced multitasking environment; instead of simply riding a bike or reading a book, the two activities have been overlaid to the extent that one must experience both activities simultaneously or neither at all. The work further plays on the notion of labor; revealing the book’s contents requires physical labor on the part of the viewer.
Through the world of engineering, Ghilarducci discovered the language of art. In 2006 he resigned from his engineering profession to begin a full time art practice. He endeavors to make interactive works that engage the viewer with a sense of play and introspection using electronics as a platform to investigate the relationship between technology and perception.