Elvis small

Gemma Syme, still from I'm the King of the Castle (You're the Dirty Rascal), 2008. DVD. Image courtesy of the artist.

 

Gemma Syme

29 June - 26 July 2009 in the Square² Gallery

I’m the King of the Castle (You’re the Dirty Rascal) 2008
DVD
Duration: 2:46 mins, looped
Courtesy of the artist

I’m the King of the Castle (You’re the Dirty Rascal) physically reanimates American cult idol Elvis Presley, or his knitted likeness on the front of a woman’s jersey. The wearer’s body, jogging motion and panting literally moves and distorts the Elvis likeness into a parody of his conventional persona. The renowned womaniser is transformed into decorative garment for the female performer; ‘Elvis’ is co-opted into someone else’s fiction, made a player in another’s performance.

In its initial showing this work was presented as part of a larger installation, enclosed inside a crudely constructed pink cardboard castle. Here the film stands unaccompanied, its brash soundtrack alone suggesting a presence at larger than life, as indeed it is. I’m the King of the Castle shrewdly contrasts bizarrely contrasting aesthetics: pop Americana and homemade craft, home video and exhibitionist feat, recorded fitness routine and live stage show, tired human and disturbingly constant Disney reproduction.

Gemma Syme completed her Masters in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington in 2009. The artist has been involved in a series of performance works and video art exhibitions at Enjoy Gallery, including 'Fronting Up' where one of her works was shown alongside artists including Ronnie van Hout, Campbell Patterson, Sarah Jane Parton and Terry Urbahn. She continues to perform in a number of Wellington musical group acts, including Trimasterbate and Feline Groovy (in which she collaborated with Eugene Hansen as a part of an exhibition and performance series 'Insidious Pop 2' at the Wellington Film Archive).