REALITY CHECK

Acclaimed photographic artist MICHAEL COOK brings into focus his keen eye for documenting the exploration of identity, race, culture and societal expectations, turning his Queensland home into an art installation.

Acclaimed photographic artist Michael Cook brings into focus his keen eye for documenting the exploration of identity, race, culture and societal expectations, turning his Queensland home into an art installation

The trailblazing American photographer Alfred Stieglitz once observed that in photography there is “a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality”. The words amount to little more than a tautology until an image presents that makes it plain how the photographer can frame a point of view into a nuanced perception of the facts. How real is real when it’s mediated by the mind’s eye? The question has long posed in the elaborate productions of photographer Michael Cook, an Indigenous man who uses the distortions of metaphor to make hyperrealist art that hijacks Western readings of history. His position is not didactic, not conclusive, not heavy with theory, but rather hypothetical, asking what if the early European settlers had been wiped out; what if England was invaded by Aboriginal spacecraft; what if First Nation peoples were the ruling class? Giving figurative answer to the final question in Through his Eyes (2010), the critically acclaimed first series that cast 27 of Australia’s past prime ministers as Aboriginals, the artist consistently frames reality as a function of rule — the victor getting to write history.

Mindful of Cook’s want to work the conscious and the unconscious into tableaux that mess with notions of real and right, it is with some suspicion that this visual record of his Queensland home has to be viewed.

What are we really looking at? A verification of the Balinese idyll that he inhabits with his jeweller partner Monika Selig or another mediated drama?

The flapping rainbow lorikeets pictured in the ensuite might suggest we’re all being played, but in this two-pavilion Sunshine Coast structure by MRA Design and Bliss Home and Renovations — a tribute to the couple’s work as well as holiday heartland Bali — the facility to retract outer wall into cavities makes the parrot fly-through plausible. ››

THESE PAGES self-portrait of artist Michael Cook in the artist’s living room with partner Monika Selig, wearing jewellery from Mrs by Monika Selig, and dog Riki; On The Rocks sofa by Francesco Binfaré for Edra, enquiries to Space Furniture; Object ‘Vase’ (2015) artwork (in background) by Michael Cook. Details, last pages.

THIS PAGE model Ivy at the entrance of this Queensland house. OPPOSITE PAGE in the hallway looking into the office, Broken Dreams #6 (2010) artwork (in foreground), Livin’ the Dream (BBQ) (2020) artwork (in office), Civilised #13 (2012) artwork (in background), all by Michael Cook.