Proud Mary, 2007Digital video, 5 min 47 sec
For the Funeral Songs installation, I made a music video for my song with the assistance of artist Sari TM Kivinen. All the other 160 or so funeral songs I collected were installed in a jukebox, but as it's my funeral and I'll cry if I want to, I decided on audio-visual treatment for my song.
My song (at least for the moment) is Proud Mary by Tina Turner. I often dance to this song when drunk at home with friends. Sometimes people join in as my backup dancers. Dying is a bit like rolling down the river.
In fact, for future incarnations of Funeral Songs, I'd like to make this a 2 channel video, with the other screen depicting me floating in a lake as if dead. Either floating for real, or with the assistance of a blow-up raft. I just ran out of time and budget this time around.
That aside, the feedback I had on Funeral Songs at MOP has been quite fantastic. The Art Life blog called the installation "fairly simple, yet amazingly profound" and on the video, they said, "he's [got] some serious moves in his dance repertoire".
Another amazing, albeit spooky thing about this project is that on opening night, 13 December a MOP, people came up to me to say how Ike Turner died the day before, though the news had broken in the southern hemisphere on the 13th (the day of my show). This came as a shock and I felt like I killed him! But my dance moves are dedicated to Tina and I selected a post-Ike 1993 version of the song.
Even though the song was first performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969, Proud Mary really is Tina at her most amazing. Tina used to perform the song with Ike and in 1972 they won a Grammy for the cover. I saw Tina live in concert twice in the 90s and Proud Mary was always the set's money shot. Just as the song gets "rough", fireworks go off and the stage comes alive with hyperactive dance moves and piercing light show. You could die right at that moment and know your life's work as a spectator has been rich and meaningful.
Most people think I'm really uncool to like Tina Turner. But I always tell them that her Number One fan is the very cool John Waters. Waters preferred her early days "when she was still with Ike, had a mustache and wore ratty mink coats" (Liner notes to A Date with John Waters CD, 2007). I interviewed John Waters earlier this year and the article appears is in the 320 page Andy Warhol book produced for the GOMA/Queensland Art Gallery show, which I am yet to see. If I knew Ike was gonna die, I would have dropped an Ike and Tina reference into the conversation. (In this interview by Scott Gordon, John Waters talks more about his love for Tina).
Tina Turner and John Waters share the same stage in the legend stakes. Now poor dead Ike - bless his wifebeating soul - may posthumously restore some of that early legend status that made him such a star back in the day. I wonder what Ike's funeral song would have been? River Deep Mountain High is what I hope was played.
So now you're in the mood, check out my Proud Mary dance moves at:
www.danielmcunningham.com (in the artist section).
6 comments:
Mr Cunningham well worth watching =) .
I will not approve on it. I assume warm-hearted post. Expressly the title-deed attracted me to be familiar with the intact story.
Amiable brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you for your information.
Nice dispatch and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you for your information.
Opulently I assent to but I about the post should have more info then it has.
Post a Comment