Mether: Libby Heaney, 'Elvis', 2019

Throughout November, December and January 2019, Yan Tan Tether will be taking over two windows of the Piazza Shopping Centre in Huddersfield with their screening programme 'Mether'.

27th Nov – 3rd Dec – Libby Heaney, ‘Elvis’, 2019


3pm- 9pm daily


‘Elvis’ by Libby Heaney is a two channel video portrait of the artist as Elvis and Elvis as the artist using a machine learning technique known as deep fake face swap. Since Elvis and Libby have different facial structures, there’s a subtle blurring of identity – a non-binary Elvis – an uncanny hybrid of them both. Audience members come to the piece with the assumption that both screens are showing the original Elvis, but then notice the differences due to the deep fakes. The piece highlights the constructed nature of gender, particularly in relation to recent digital technologies. Elvis invites the audience into a reimagined history where the King of Rock and Roll was actually a womxn. The work questions the notion of male author genius and also talks about our desire and consumption around the cult of celebrity.

For more information visit https://www.yantantether.org/home/mether/