What is Tupelo 1?
Tupelo 1 is a very large guitar-shaped sculpture.  It is made out of cardboard & wire, papier mache, painted photocopies, perspex, book pages, toy soldiers, coins, fake jewels, fabric, metal fasteners & a lot of varnish.   Inside the guitar is a slot car track, books, TV, fake food, jewels, weapons, fibre optic clock & more.  The interior is lit by Xmas lights.
Size: 
Tupelo 1 is made up of two parts - the body and the neck.
The body of the guitar is 1.5m (nearly 5 feet) at it's widest and about 2.1m (about 6 1/2 feet) in length.

The neck is 1.1m (about 3 1/2 feet) at it's widest (where the tuning knobs are) and about 2.3m (about 7 feet) long.

The guitar weighs about 100 kilograms but this is a guesstimate - two people can lift the body, one person can carry the neck.

Tupelo 1 is about Elvis and also about the times in which he lived.    

Briefly -

Tupelo 1 includes references to other universal pop culture characters - eg Mickey Mouse & other cartoon characters - generated (mostly) by the US and adopted internationally. It connects them via an old craft - decoupage - and, as the guitar is seen as either an elaborate coffin or an elaborate spacecraft or both (see The story of Tupelo 1), it serves to bury or enshrine these figures as well as raise the question - are we taking them with us into the twenty-first century?

The body of the guitar combines images of the young Elvis - painted photocopies of photographs 

- with images relating to a number of song titles.

The image 'tiles' form a diamond pattern around the circumference of Tupelo 1 and are studded with gold, giving the guitar a regal and somewhat medieval feel.

The 'lid' of the guitar tells a 'story'.  If Tupelo 1 is a spacecraft then the story is there to provide non-earthly beings with some 'information' albeit cryptic pictorial information about Elvis.

On the lower part of the guitar a winged young Elvis is suspended mid-air.  It is if he has just risen from the dead, restored to his glorious younger days.  He holds the keys to the universe in one hand and a King of Hearts card in the other.   Around him, stunned, jubilant characters come running to offer him gifts.  A little girl holds a giant comb.  The Love Bug brings a guitar.  Cinderella offers Elvis two clocks - he can choose what time he wants it to be.  Sea creatures bring food.  Captain Hook offers treasure.   Dumbo brings a crown.  A little boy holds up a squid, but he's not sure if Elvis will like it.  The two little pigs are there - the third little pig has gone to inform the media that Elvis is back.  The only character that turns away from Elvis is Mickey Mouse.  He's jealous of the attention that Elvis is getting and tries to keep the attention of a cameraman on himself.

The upper part of the 'lid' has different messages.  In the centre is a large porthole surrounded by petals, each of which contains the letters - E L V I S.  The letters run together so it looks like ELVIS LIVES ELVIS LIVES.  When you look in through this hole you can see Elvis's face.  On top of the porthole is a guard dog - the loyal friend Elvis needed.

To the left of this is a gold Chinese 'good luck on your journey' symbol.  This refers to Elvis's interest in martial arts and Eastern philosophy.  It's also there to give him good luck in his journey through space.

Elvis as a type of 'religion' is depicted at top left.  There is God the Father (depicted by a weeping martian - he's weeping at the idea of Elvis being worshipped as a God) and the Holy Spirit (one of the stained glass peacocks from Graceland). The trifecta is completed and Elvis's universality is shown by his appearance as Krishna.
 
Top centre of the guitar refers to the Elvis his fans believe he was/is and want him to be (smelling like roses) and the Elvis his critics said he was (an exotic snake). Albert Goldman, one less-than-flattering biographer, is depicted as Tom Thumb. In the centre, I put myself at the feet of the two Elvises.

At top right, a flying monkey carries a girl away from a naked man - this refers to Elvis as Sex Bomb (censored pelvis), and Innocent (humble Southern boy with God-given talent). Below this a Hawaiian dancing girl stands in front of Elvis who is peeping out from the shadows.  A bear looks away and a man is shocked at the sight.  This refers to the stories about Elvis's dark side - his purported sexual kinks - thanks Albert.  Who knows the truth and frankly, who cares?

The Neck

The neck of the guitar refers to Elvis's stretch in the army.  The soldiers also represent Elvis's own battles.  The foreign currency represents the huge amounts of money at stake in the 'Elvis business'.  

The neck is tree-like (to infer that life is going on inside)
and the tuning 'knobs' are branches.  Each branch ends in a musician in a golden cage.

This represents the plight of those who choose to be entertainers.  These people have to be more like Gods than humans so that their fans can 'worship' them.  Elvis couldn't just sing for his fans, he had to
live a life for them too.
  
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