If I Can Dream

If I Can Dream Catalogue Essay

I Love Elvis

It is tempting to leave my personal statement at that, like an adolescent doodle, drawn on a desk top as if daydreaming of my childhood heart throb. Tradition however, demands greater detail so I will endeavor to elaborate.

DH Lawrence wrote, “If men were as much men as lizards are lizards they’d be worth looking at” Exemplifying that sentiment, Elvis, resplendent in his rhinestone encrusted, white tasseled, sartorial stage display, was worth watching. The raw un-choreographed sexuality of his early 70’s Vegas performances still captivates me as he repeatedly created transcendent, Kerouac style, ‘IT’ moments.

At an age when my wildest fantasy consisted of my hero sleeping under my bed, Elvis was omnipresent. My mother owned every record he’d released and together with my sister, we would sing along, wearing huge 70’s headphones; or sit, swooning, as we watched his films, my youthful naivety obscuring the now obvious contrivance. It may initially appear to be a random leap from the sex doll companion and feminist investigation of my earlier work to Elvis, but the basic dialogue remains very similar. As with my doll I am essentially alone in these images and whist humorous and aesthetically bright, a sense of sadness and isolation is evident. The work is a negotiation of nascent sexuality - an exploration of a return to the safety of innocent childhood passion. I think that this is a point worth reiterating, this work is about my childhood and Elvis the fantasy idol, not a celebration of the man himself. Elvis was, and continues to be, a commodity, consumable in the most literal sense, his image reproduced on everything from beach towels to ashtrays. Objectified to the extreme and judged superficially, the parallels are evident.

I am reluctant to linger purely on the personal as, although first and foremost ‘If I Can Dream’ is my tribute, Elvis' capacity for protean readings and his enduring iconic status makes academic discussion fascinating. However, such social commentary is potentially lengthy and the temptation to proselytize overwhelming, so I will restrict myself simply to this… It is incomprehensible today that as a 50’s erotic idol, Elvis was deemed responsible for the dehumanization and depravity of society, creating a moral panic so extreme that he was labeled ‘a definite danger to the security of the United States’. I acknowledge my extreme extrapolation but at a time when the Kinsley report stated that women were ‘un-sexual and unaware of their bodies’, I like to imagine Elvis early provocative performances creating a physical awareness and permissiveness that instigated female sexual liberation.

It was initially my intention to create images that parodied children coloring books; kitch, ironic pictures with marks redolent of felt tip pens that revisited my adolescent fascination. But as my tests and color studies progressed, the inherently sensual nature of repeatedly drawing Elvis images became increasingly intimate and intoxicating, rekindling sparks of my first crush. The use of coloring pencils grew from a desire to surrender the elaborate and stylized and simply take time to revel in each ephemeral dreamscape. The work has become a legitimate fantasy, and I have grown unashamedly nostalgic for a romantic and credulous time when the good girls get the guy and dreams can still come true.

Richelle Rich

2002

Created in 2002 on the 25th anniversary of Elvis’s death, ‘If I Can Dream’ was a solo show at Hirschl Contemporary Art in Cork St London. These hand colored pieces sat alongside light installations and a series of performance photographs, all paying tribute to my childhood fantasy.