Elvis ‘56/’77 tells the story of Elvis’s rise to stardom in the early days of television. His first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show is watched by over 80% of TV viewers — to this day, the largest single audience in US television history. In perhaps the most noted act of television censorship, for Elvis’s third appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a decision is made to film Elvis only from his waist up; the gyrations of his pelvis are perceived as inappropriately sexual for a family audience. In Elvis ‘56/’77, this act of censorship becomes of metaphor for Elvis’s life and career. His creative suppression and commercial exploitation at the hands of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, take Elvis from his culturally explosive beginning to the floor of a hotel room in Las Vegas, where he is found dead from a drug overdose.

Permanent Collections

• Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Exhibitions

• The New Communism, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY, USA, 2005
• Saints and Sinners, curated by Laura Hoptman, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis, University, Waltham, MA, USA, 2009
• Moving Images: Artists & Video/Film, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, 2010