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Michael Cook's 'What-if' Retake on Australia's History

Danielle Emmerich
Write About Art 5
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When Captain James Cook first arrived on Australian shores on that historic day in 1770, he wrote in his journal that the Aboriginal people ‘may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans’. It is this journal entry that has inspired the Indigenous artist Michael Cook to create his recent series, entitled ‘Civilised’, many generations and centuries later. The work poses many ‘what-if’ questions, specifically: ‘what if the British had realised Aborigines were indeed civilised? Would history have been different?’

Indigenously focussed and produced art is a growing genre in Australia. It is increasingly recognised and appreciated, with the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane exhibiting ‘My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia’ during 2013. Michael Cook was a contributor to this exhibition, with his ‘Civilised’ series. He also featured in the 7th Asia-Pacific Triennial that was exhibited over 2012 and 2013 at GOMA. The ‘My Country’ exhibition presented Indigenous views of history, illustrations of connections to place, and responses to contemporary politics and experiences. Ranging between sculpture, video, photography and traditional dot-painting, there was a strong thread that bound these diverse artists and works: the desire to tell their stories and share their experiences.

Michael Cook’s ‘Civilised’ series runs in both an historical and political thread, in that he uses history to make modern political commentary. Using his expertise in digital image-making and post-production techniques, Cook depicts a range of Indigenous Australian people dressed in period attire from colonial Spain, England, France and the Netherlands. If the Aborigines had appeared in a more European perspective of ‘civilised’, in both... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Michael Cook, Civilized #4, 2012. Inkjet print on paper, 100 x 87cm. Edition of 8. Image courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.

Michael Cook, Civilized #4, 2012. Inkjet print on paper, 100 x 87cm. Edition of 8. Image courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.

Michael Cook, Civilized #10, 2012. Inkjet print on paper, 100 x 87cm. Edition of 8. Image courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.

Michael Cook, Civilized #10, 2012. Inkjet print on paper, 100 x 87cm. Edition of 8. Image courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.