Gender is a Drag was originally created at art school for the artist’s end of first-year exhibition ‘Someone Might Notice a Thick Puff of Smoke (10)’ at Western Sydney University, 25 November 1993 (then UWS Nepean). What was to become Daniel Mudie Cunningham’s first ever public performance piece, it was staged at the two window galleries of the library on the Kingswood campus. In one window, a looped VHS video depicted the artist seated in an antique chair, experiencing a gender transformation marked by make-up, hair-dye, and a Pet Shop Boys song. In the adjacent window, a reversal of the gender transformation is marked by head shaving and a Frida Kahlo painting through live performance on opening night.

To mark the twentieth anniversary of his first public performance piece, Daniel Mudie Cunningham re-performed his 1993 work Gender is a Drag on Friday 13 September 2013 at Alaska Projects in Sydney. This performance was dedicated to the artist's brother Christopher Lee Mudie (1979–2013) who had died a fortnight earlier.

2023
HD single channel video with sound, 16:9, 12:37 min
Camera: Tina Havelock Stevens
Audience Camera & Stills: Garry Trinh
Additional Camera: Catherine White, Sean Mudie
Editor: Vera Hong

1993
Installation performance, VHS video with sound, 4:3
Camera: Emma Crimmings
Stills: Ross Cunningham
Makeup: Catherine White