Elijah Wheel is a virtual hero, meme, mascot, homunculus. The faceless character resembles a template for visual memes, ready to be imbued with any meaning. He is a "blank template man," as he calls himself. We learn about the intriguing facts of his biography through posts on his social media.
The digital graphics, clear black outlines, and references to images from popular culture, advertisements, cartoons, and comics technically evoke the works of Julian Opie and Keith Haring. Openly displayed visual quotes and even borrowings, blatant fakes, memes, and reproduced clichés form a cocktail of techniques generously seasoned with absurdist humor. This "digital homunculus" comes to life, sparking genuine interest.
The illusory nature of this image does not seem strange to us, as mass culture has accustomed us to manipulations of consciousness. The recipes work flawlessly. Advertising technologies and branding tools turn ordinary people into pop idols and rock stars, while the Photoshop-drawn Elijah Wheel exudes an irresistible charm of success. One can either envy or join the army of fans.
Rumors about his origins vary widely. Elijah himself claims to be several thousand years old and of divine origin, as suggested by the lyrics of his first single. There are also speculations that he is an artistic project possibly created by Beeple and Banksy.
The myth of Elijah is based on several interpretations within the fan community. One of the most prominent versions, considered to be the central one, stems from an analysis of the lyrics in the first single of Elijah Wheel, The Blank Template Man. According to this version, the song explicitly describes Elijah as a prophet whose chariot was burned, leaving him to live in the heavens while still alive. However, boredom led him to descend to Earth, leaving his physical body behind in the heavens.
This suggests that Elijah Wheel is a modern incarnation of the prophet Elijah, though without his physical form. This portrayal aligns with the prophet Elijah from religious tradition, who ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot, but here, he takes on a new, spiritual existence without a body.
Why this particular image? Given Elijah’s nature—borrowing the most successful marketing examples from media—he chose a visual style synthesized from the works of Keith Haring, Julian Opie, Joan Cornellà, David Shrigley, and Deni Cole. Elijah's deep appreciation for contemporary visual arts is evident in his choice to adopt this unique aesthetic, blending recognizable elements from these artists.
Thus, Elijah Will is perceived as a prophet reborn, not in flesh, but through the lens of modern media and art.
Type: meme, deity, brand
Birth Name: Elijah Wheel
Date of Birth: unknown
Genre/Style: No limitations
Memecoins: yes
Chains: base, sol, tron
Scam: no
Website: elijahwheel.com
As Elijah himself claims, his main goal is to achieve maximum global popularity, and he is ready to pursue this goal by almost any means necessary. Since his emergence in the online media space in 2021, Elijah has chosen to popularize himself through memes. More specifically, he relies on using others' memes, borrowing. The vast number of memes appearing on Elijah's social media accounts are mostly attempts to "piggyback" on the fame and popularity of other memes.
It is unclear whether he does this on his own or if he has an army of fans working for him. Regardless, this strategy has yielded results — the myth he builds around himself is increasingly penetrating real life. Real TV hosts now appear on TV wearing T-shirts with his image, people from different cities around the world send in videos of magazines featuring him in stores, and they boast about products under the Elijah brand in their refrigerators.