By Elena Martínez-Jacquet
166
The Photography of Michael Cook
and a man of Bidjara origin, he was abandoned
by his parents and grew up adopted into a family
that championed the indigenous cause. These
circumstances lie at the root of his sensitivity to the
question of identity, as well as the reason for his
decision in 2009, after twenty-fi ve years of working
in fashion and advertising photography, to focus
on producing an intimate personal body of work
that is off the beaten path. The contemporary art
world recognized Cook’s remarkable mastery of
digital manipulation techniques as soon as his fi rst
series, Through My Eyes, was presented, and it
was selected for the Western Australian Indigenous
Art Awards in 2011. Since then, he has continued
to garner critical acclaim, and his work has been
presented in multiple prestigious art fairs as well
as in temporary exhibitions at major international
museums.
Cook’s photographs are as profoundly refl ective
as they are richly nuanced, and they are conceived
of in series and are layered like paintings. The point
of departure is always a core idea, which is then
redacted, dissected, and examined in the different
compositions of which each series is composed.
The various elements of the image are then
brought together through the superimposition of
photographic images. The result is a photographic
image that bears no relation to a studio photo
or to a classical landscape. These usually depict
FIG. 1 (above):
Stickman #3. 2010.
Inkjet print on paper.
Courtesy Michael Cook and Andrew
Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.
FIG. 2 (right):
Undiscovered #4. 2010.
Edition 1/2.
Inkjet print on paper.
Courtesy Michael Cook and Andrew
Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.
VISIONS OF AUSTRALIA
An exhibition currently at the Musée
d’Ethnographie de Genève (MEG) both reminds
visitors of the signifi cance and historical depth
of its ethnographic collection and demonstrates
that the efforts to suppress Australian Aboriginal
culture that have been made since the eighteenth
century have actually had the opposite result.
L’effet boomerang. Les arts aborigènes et
insulaires d’Australie (The Boomerang Effect: The
Aboriginal Arts in Australia) also has allowed for
new discoveries, especially of the contemporary
artists that the MEG has been featuring. Among
these are the works of Michael Cook, which are
highlighted in this show, which can be seen until
January 7, 2018. Seven of Cook’s images from two
series—Undiscovered, 2010 (fi g. 2), and Mother,
which was shown for the fi rst time at the 2016 Art
Basel Hong Kong (fi gs. 3 and 4)—are presented
in L’effet boomerang, and they are striking as
much for their visual qualities as for the way in
which they reveal the artist’s profound concern
for the issues associated with the colonization of
Australia. This is not entirely surprising insofar
as Cook himself is, in many respects, the twentyfi
rst-century embodiment of the consequences of
this history.
Based in Brisbane, Queensland, Cook’s lineage
and upbringing are central to his art. Born in 1968
of an encounter between a sixteen-year-old woman
PORTFOLIO