Porcelain

Porcelain 1985 /2007

I took these photos of Trevor in 1985 when he was about four years of age at Carss Park, Sydney. The photos were taken with a plastic Instamatic camera that I took everywhere. As I was an aspiring photographer, Trevor was always a willing model. During the 80s I took many photos of Trevor in really weird poses and scenarios. He never complained until reminded of those same photos as an adult.

For Funeral Songs the image on top is being used for publicity purposes and it will feature in the exhibition. In the second image you can see my other brothers Chris and Sean, standing together knee-deep in the water on the left hand side of the frame.

Trevor

Funeral Songs is a project I started in response to having been to a lot of funerals and having seen a lot of death.

The hardest death was my brother's death: Trevor Mudie.

We never played the funeral song Trevor requested. Strangely, a few weeks before he died, he asked Mum if she'd play Moby's Porcelain at his funeral. When he died, Mum couldn't recall what the song was so we played something else (Jane Siberry's Calling All Angels). Later Mum remembered the Moby song.

I started Funeral Songs as a way of honouring Trevor. I know he'd really like this project - he never really 'got' any of my other projects.

Funeral Songs: Dedicated to Trevor Alec Mudie (1980-2001).