As part of my design course I was tasked at looking at two Photomedia artists and deconstructing how they produced their images. For my first artist, I'm looking at Michael Cook.
Cook is a Brisbane based artist. One of his series is called Invasion and is about alien creatures invading London. The images are a flip of Australian Colonial History - in these images the aggressors are iconic Australian creatures, and the victims in these images are white Londoners. As Australia was invaded, Australia is invading back!
Cook starts with a base picture of an iconic London streetscape. The ‘invaders’ are cut into the scene. The image below looks like bald cockatoos (a nod to Australian wildlife) menacing people running screaming to avoid them. There are people emerging from the tube station exit encountering the fierce birds. The image is washed out - almost like it was an old photo - taken at a time where the colouring of photos wasn’t at the level it is today. The people in the scene are dressed in outfits from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Perhaps a nod to the period of white immigration into Australia.
The other images from the series feature different Australian animals, menacing the people of London, and all feature people in older-style clothing in a similarly washed out looking photo.
Australia is invading!
Cook’s photos are available on his website:
They were exhibited at the ‘This Is No Fantasy’ gallery:
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