On Their Level
Pablo Delgado
On Their Level
Pablo Delgado
Los Angeles, 2015
On Their Level challenges the viewer’s perspective by literally changing their point of view and in doing so playfully exploring multiple perceptions of society, equality, consumerism and temporality.
Within the exhibition Delgado continues the thread explored in his 2014 London exhibition Even Less by creating a viewing experience based on interaction, engagement and active participation. In On Their Level, Delgado pushes this concept forward by again forcing the viewer to radically change the lens through which they view the subject.
In the installation, the viewer is presented with a constrained perspective in which they find themselves at floor level, face to face with a tableau of Delgado’s visual metaphors and references. Delgado uses this new perspective to present an entire population of people arranged in surreal scenes and compositions each with a deeper underlying meaning.
The figures in Delgado’s scenes are all looking for the ‘right’ shape, the ‘right’ place, the ‘right’ object. Familiar faces from 1950s and 60s America travel from A to B constantly looking for things that they are never able to find. In this way, the work confronts consumerism and the problem of over consumption.
Disparate places are linked by surfaces and time, built and populated by individuals who at the same time form a homogeneous group. In this way, Delgado creates a microcosm of American society in a surreal and humorous way.
Over population and over production are problems that are treated as part of a fictional scene that takes place in someone else’s world, making it someone else’s problem. The exhibition is concerned with the dichotomy between ephemerality and permanence, explored through Delgado’s subject matter. Delgado further explores these themes with the use of materials, shape and colour.