Good Times Burn Fast
(tag 663)
A Rolling Conundrum
2013

Private Collection

Assemblage (62” x 20” x 20”)

Exhibition History:
California Heritage Museum, April 27-November 8, 2019

Artist description:

This artwork is a commentary on the fact that even if you are fortunate to live to be 100 years old (or older) life passes very quickly. The artist is commenting on the importance of living your life, actualizing who you are as the unique individual that you are, and adding that back into the world. As Pancho Barnes, famous aviatrix, was noted for saying, “Don’t try to be like anyone else because we’ve seen that already!” This artwork is made up of a whale oil lamp sitting atop fragments of wood foundry molds. We see a red fox skull wrapped in copper wire sitting atop a scale. The artist has affixed to the front of the scale numerous Chinese fortune cookie sayings that he collected over the course of two years.

Be sure to read some of the fortune cookie sayings that are pasted to the front of the scale. The weight of the skull has the pointer on the scale pointing to the fortune cookie saying, ‘Good times burn fast.’

This is another artwork from D’Elia’s ‘Rolling Conundrum’ series. The rolling conundrums are artworks created to represent problems occurring everywhere affecting everyone.

Publication History:
2022 LGBT Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide
Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. (Page 40)