What song do you want played at your funeral?
In 2007, Daniel Mudie Cunningham posed this question in a far-reaching call-out, the responses to which were catalogued in a jukebox installation at MOP Projects called Funeral Songs. This project was later restaged in expanded form at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in 2012.
Collated song choices range from the profound to the playful, some deliberately pulling at the heartstrings while others intend for listeners to drop everything and dance. The compilation has become an archive of how people wish to be remembered, pointing to the powerful capacity of music for holding memories and eliciting emotions. Cunningham initiated Funeral Songs - along with Proud Mary, a performance series of his own funeral song - to remember and acknowledge the funeral song his brother Trevor Alec Mudie (1980—2001) identified just prior to his untimely death. Amid the family’s grief, the song choice was forgotten. Recalled later, the song has become the bedrock of this archive of music you can live or die to.
On the occasion of the artist's survey exhibition Are You There? at Wollongong Art Gallery, curated by James Gatt, a special edition of the poster has been created in partnership with Big Fag Press.
Funeral Songs, 2007–2012, printed 2023
Offset lithographic print
100 x 70 cm
Edition 50
In 2007, Daniel Mudie Cunningham posed this question in a far-reaching call-out, the responses to which were catalogued in a jukebox installation at MOP Projects called Funeral Songs. This project was later restaged in expanded form at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in 2012.
Collated song choices range from the profound to the playful, some deliberately pulling at the heartstrings while others intend for listeners to drop everything and dance. The compilation has become an archive of how people wish to be remembered, pointing to the powerful capacity of music for holding memories and eliciting emotions. Cunningham initiated Funeral Songs - along with Proud Mary, a performance series of his own funeral song - to remember and acknowledge the funeral song his brother Trevor Alec Mudie (1980—2001) identified just prior to his untimely death. Amid the family’s grief, the song choice was forgotten. Recalled later, the song has become the bedrock of this archive of music you can live or die to.
On the occasion of the artist's survey exhibition Are You There? at Wollongong Art Gallery, curated by James Gatt, a special edition of the poster has been created in partnership with Big Fag Press.
Funeral Songs, 2007–2012, printed 2023
Offset lithographic print
100 x 70 cm
Edition 50
