Artist Spotlight #1 - Michael Cook

Hello beautiful stranger,

Today I'm tip-tapping my pink, blinged out nails to tell you about an artist whose work I've fallen in love with.

Let me introduce you to photographer Michael Cook! Cook is an Aboriginal Australian with Bidjara/Bidyara heritage (south-west central Queensland/north west of Brisbane). 

Michael Cook, Invasion (Laser Girls), 2017

Cook's works are heavily focused on evoking conversations about past and present power dynamics between Australia's colonial history and Aboriginal realities and hi(stories).

His series Invasion re-imagines history by flipping the empire from European to Aboriginal. His website discusses how "Cook's images express the shock that enveloped the Australian continent when European people appeared on Aboriginal shores". Other photos in the series depict ginormous versions of Australian native wildlife terrorising the streets of London. But my absolute favourite is without a doubt the Laser Girls (above); their silver, disco shorts, perfectly sculpted hair and their gaze feels striking as they shoot citizens down with their bare laser breasts - that's hot.

There's a clear element of play in this series, the way the models are posed, their clothing and facial expressions - not to mention the de-feathered cockatoo reminds me of Captain H(C)ook's trusty parrot! The playful nature contradicts any claim that Cook is suggesting the answer to the travesties of colonisation is a reverse invasion. Instead, it highlights the absurd, ultra-extractivist practice of colonial Britain as it rampaged through-out the globe, and how insanely destructive it was to culture's (emphasised by the explosion of European buildings in the photos). 

Undeniably, there is something beautifully camp in the combination of irony and exaggeration, and I am obsessed. It's giving Austin Powers meets Destroy All Humans meets Captain Hook and it's in these cross-cultural conversations that a new reality can be imagined.

I'd also like to draw your attention to another series he did in 2014: Majority Rule.

Michael Cook, Majority Rule (No. 05), 2014

This series once again flips the script of Australia's story. Despite Aboriginal Peoples being the longest living culture in the world (estimated at around 60,000 years), today they only account for 3.8% of the Australian population... Y'all. Cook's series Majority Rule imagines an Australia where Aboriginal people instead make up 96% of the population. I'm just obsessed with the duplication of the man in this series and his gaze.

As an Art history and fashion girlie, I admire Cook's use of steezy fits and camp sensibility amidst important political and social conversations. For that reason, I think he's seriously underrated outside of the Australian art scene.

Kay well if you read all of that then just know you're hot and sexy! I hope you discovered something cool about this awesome artist. You can check out his website for more photo series': https://www.michaelcook.net.au/ and if you have socials you should follow him on Insta and FB.

Jae 

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