Works
Monkey Bars, 2014
Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Monkey Bars, 2014
Filmed in a semi-brutalist park in Kandos NSW that was redeveloped and ‘contemporised’ several weeks after shooting, Monkey Bars depicts three wise man-monkeys cavorting on the monkey bars and playground equipment. The performance is set to a mash-up of eco-apocalyptic 'Monkey Gone to Heaven' by The Pixies and '(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone', a breakup song by The Monkees. Monkey Bars is conceived as the ‘lost B-Side' of Dog Eat Dog, a music video Daniel Mudie Cunningham released in 2013. In Dog Eat Dog, the artist gorges on platters of hotdogs in a dog suit, edited to a music mash of 'I Wanna Be Your Man' by The Beatles and 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' by The Stooges. Monkey Bars uses the same logic of forced associations through wordplay and music puns by mixing unlikely rock songs with hungry, sexed-up 'plushies' looking for love in all the wrong places. This work continues Cunningham's interest in queering the tropes of popular culture and music video conventions to flip the record on how meaning is regenerated in a world of remakes and covers.

Monkey Bars, 2014
HD single channel video with sound, 3:20 min
Performers: Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Elliott Bryce Foulkes, Tom McDonald
Camera: Vera Hong, Craig Bender
Editor: Vera Hong
Remix: Daniel Mudie Cunningham with Andy Rantzen
Music: 'Monkey Gone to Heaven' by The Pixies, 1989; '(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone' by The Monkees, 1966
Music Engineer: Campbell Drummond
Filmed in Kandos, NSW, 5 October 2014
Edition of 5 + 1 AP
Commissioner:
Cementa
Group exhibitions:
Cementa15, Kandos Projects, 2015
Let’s Get Lost, Alaska Projects, 2015
Cementa Friendship, Mudgee Arts Precinct, 2024
Collections:
Kandos Museum