Michael Cook (born 1968) is an award-winning, Australian Art photographer whose artwork Majority Rule [Bridge] is an exciting new addition to the James Cook University Art Collection. This large scale photograph features in this year’s 2024 Mabo Library Art Exhibition – Insights: A selection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from the James Cook University Art Collection, and can be seen on display in the northern stairwell between the ground and first floors of the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library.
Majority Rule [Bridge] is part of a series of 7 images named Majority Rule that were created by Cook in 2014, and exhibited at Andrew Baker Art Dealer gallery that year. This marked an aesthetic shift from Cook’s previous works and demonstrated a move by the artist into new artistic territory. In this series he has used images to pose a direct question:
“This series is about a conversation… These images speculate about Aboriginal people being in the majority— what if Aboriginal people were 96 per cent of the Australian population and white people defined as the four percent?”i
Cook’s photographic practice has been described as unusual because he constructs his images in a way that is more akin to painting or printmaking than to traditional photographic studio or documentary modes. He characteristically works in photographic series, and his method is to approach the construction of his imagery as if it were, to start with, a large blank canvas. Beginning with a concept, he uses photographic layering “to build the image to provide aesthetic depth”. ii
Unique in their style, uniting historical, imaginary, political and personal imagery, Cook’s photographs offer enigmatic, unprescribed narratives that are left open to interpretation by the viewer.
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| Visitors to the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library on the JCU Bebegu Yumba Campus (Townsville) viewing the artwork by Michael Cook which features in the Insights Exhibition. |
In Majority Rule, “Cook uses the same Indigenous man multiplied over and over in each image to communicate his message, and paint a picture of a societal structure reversed… The numerous versions of the Aboriginal subject populate generic city locations… Cook’s interest in the impact of Australia’s history on its original inhabitants comes into sharp focus with this series” iii, and touches on the discriminatory nature of society in general. His choice of black and white photographs for this series gives it a monochromatic vintage feel, which is further emphasised by the figures’ clothing, and the crisp starkness of the cityscape setting.
Cook, who is of mixed ancestry – some of which is Indigenous - has worked commercially for twenty-five years, in Australia and internationally. He was drawn into art photography in 2009 by an increasingly urgent desire to learn about his Indigenous ancestry and explore that aspect of his identity.
Cook’s photographs are featured in many publications and represented in many major Australian collections. Additionally, he is the recipient of numerous awards and residences since 2008 and is represented in many international private and public collections including the British Museum, London, and museums in the Netherlands and United States of America.
This artwork was donated to the James Cook University Art Collection through the Australian Cultural Gifts Program (CGP) by Caroline O'Rorke and Bruce Forbes Graham in 2023.
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| Michael Cook, Majority Rule [Bridge],
2014. Inkjet print on paper, ed 4/8, 84 x 120cm. Donated through the
Australian Cultural Gifts Program by Caroline O'Rorke and Bruce Forbes
Graham for the James Cook University Art Collection in 2023. Reproduced
with permission © Michael Cook, 2024. Photograph by Through the Looking Glass Studio. |
i Michael Cook, Interview with the author, Brisbane, Friday 11 October 2013. From the exhibition catalogue Michael Cook – Majority Rule, Martin-Chew, Louise, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, 2013. https://www.andrew-baker.com/Michael%20Cook_Majority_Rule.pdf
ii ibid
iii https://www.michaelcook.net.au/projects/majority-rule
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