the journey/nightmares
rocker as hero & shaman
Elvis Sweatcloth I by Jeffrey Valance (1993)
Sweat on satin. It’s signed
(though actually it isn’t). Enuf said.
Rendezvous by Ted Faiers (1977)
Elvis’s last act. The book he was reading was supposed to be about the
Shroud of Turin. Alternative legends say it was an astrological sex guide
or a medical pamphlet on enemas. Take your pick.
Frog Elvis: The Lounge Act
by David Gilhooly (1993)
Again, no idea.
This is Elvis transformed out
of all recognition.
And yet we recognize him.
Study of Severed Elvis Head with Salmon
by Marc Solomon Dennis (1993)
Elvis as John the Baptist, famous beheaded person?
No idea.
the range of elvis art
Roman Head, 2000 years old, carved
marble; auctioned London, 2008.
“It just shows how human faces repeat
themselves”, said Julian Roup of
Bonhams auction house.
I’m sure you’re right, Julian. I mean,
it couldn’t be time travel, now, could it?
elvis art is its own genre (like elvis films, like elvis
cuisine). every medium, every style – ‘realistic’,
heartfelt, distorted (both kitsch and parody) – every
angle, every meaning. the subjects include the
obvious: his life, his songs, his performances, his
‘aura’. But the short circuits abound: the severed head,
the frog, the roman marble.
none of this is concerned with whether the art is any
good or not. elvis is featured in the Museum of Bad Art
in Boston, Mass. But some well-known artists – Andy
Warhol, ed ruscha, Keith Haring – have had a go as
well. What it’s about is iconography – one that is being
created right now.
Images of elvis – and allusions to him (because the two
intertwine) – are always pushing at the boundaries of
what is identifiably so, to what is ‘really’ so. that is why he
appears in contradictory forms: direct and unfathomable,
honoured and ridiculed, healthy and sick. And by that very
token, he embodies liberation. Why? Because elvis is
beyond: beyond reason, beyond control, beyond us. His
forms are legion and all of them are liberating (including
the trashy, the warped and the false).
A painting of elvis with the Virgin Mary and a
photocollage called Elvis Eaten by Ants (elvis
Week, Memphis, 1997).
elvis as a woman, a grotesque fatty and an
entertainer called elvistein. (frankenstein or
einstein?) (the All-elvis Art Show extravaganza at the World tattoo Gallery, chicago,
1992). other titles included Elvis, Not; Elvis
Versus the Five Fingers of Satan; The
Resurrection of Jesse Garon; Hunka Hunka
Flying Elvis.
We can go on: a singing toilet (with words
from ‘Don’t Be cruel’); the world’s biggest
painting: 77,000 sq. feet of the elvis stamp.
A lot of this is very similar to the wilder
shores of elvis artefacts: rosaries, prayer
rugs, wedding kits, a d-lux shroud, a sacred
elvis detector.
Short circuits everywhere we look: insects, a
monster (or maybe a genius), religion, his
twin, impersonators (the flyInG elVISeS – see
p.129). It’s up to you what you take and
where you go with it.
“He didn’t draw any lines,” said Sam Phillips of Elvis at the age of 19.
That’s where it started. I’d say ‘Look where it’s finished’ – except that it’s not finished yet.
the underworld/calling down the gods
126
rock’n’roll as blessing & ordeal