Michael Cook On Sharing Knowledge Through Art and His New Series ‘Individuation’, Debuting at Melbourne Art Fair

Michael Cook’s magnificent hyper-real photographs often capture roles in reversal, histories re-written, testing viewers’ relationships to aspects of Australia’s colonial history, and to society’s tendency toward overconsumption.

This year, debuting his new ongoing series, Individuation at Melbourne Art Fair with Jan Murphy Gallery (Meanjin/Brisbane), he explores the societal forces that pull us toward materiality. Speaking with the Fair, Michael provides insight on his decades-spanning career, exploring Australia’s layered histories through his photographs, and more. Michael’s work will be presented by Jan Murphy Gallery, Booth B2.

How were you first introduced to photography?  

My older brother bought me my first camera when I was 14. He worked in a photography lab and introduced me to all the basics of photography and the darkroom. By the time I was 17, I was also working in the lab and 5 years later I opened my own photographic studio, mostly shooting weddings and fashion style portraits.

Michael Cook, Consumerism, 2024-25, from the series Individuation, archival pigment print on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery (Meanjin/Brisbane).

Can you talk us through your transition from commercial photography to fine art? What influenced your decision to make this career shift? How does your experience in the commercial sector influence how you create your current work? 

By the time I was 40, I had already experienced various areas of photography, labs, darkroom, weddings, portraits, fashion, commercial photography, which all taught me things which I could apply to my artistic process. I always had my own projects whirring in the back of my mind so I decided to focus on making my own work for 12 months and see how it went. I made the Prime Ministers series and got gallery representation with Andrew Baker in Brisbane and I’ve been making major bodies of work ever since.

Much of your work interrogates the ‘what if’ – alternative histories, like in Majority Rule where the Indigenous population makes up 96% of Australia and the non-Indigenous 4% or in Fake, in which a white child is adopted into an Indigenous family – a reversal of your own personal history. Can you expand on your interest in communicating these alternative histories and thus interrogating those currently in place? What insights are you hoping that the viewer might gain? 

I grew up with a lot of questions about my identity. I was never taught any First Nations history at school, only about the ‘discovery’ of Australia. My work continues to question the ‘what ifs’ of our history and the impacts of colonisation, and I hope that it raises questions for the viewer too. I have a strong narrative element to my work but rather than coming from a place of moralising (or demoralising) I hope that I can highlight the complexity of our layered history. Art is a way of expanding and sharing knowledge, it provokes a different way of thinking about things. I’m proud that I get to tell my story – I’ve been making work for the past two decades, and hope that my work will still be here long after I’m gone.

Michael Cook, Authenticity, 2024-25, from the series Individuation, archival pigment print on paper. Courtesy the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery (Meanjin/Brisbane).

Each element in your work is meticulously and intentionally chosen and positioned, across the palette, subject and mis-en-scene, reflecting the overall narrative of a series. Can you expand on your process when creating a composition – from ideation to finished result? 

It all stems from an idea. It doesn’t matter the scale of production required to create the work, only that I need to tell a message. Sometimes it’s a large production with lots of people involved, sometimes it’s small. The thing that matters is being able to get the vision I see in my head onto paper.

What projects are you currently working on? What can we expect to see from your solo presentation with Jan Murphy at Melbourne Art Fair? 

My next series is titled Individuation and it is largely set in London. Following on from my last series Fake, this body of work continues to explore the psychology of conditioning and the contemporary forces that constantly prompt us towards materiality. The title of the series ‘Individuation’ was coined by psychologist Carl Jung to describe the process of developing an authentic individuality. As with most of my work, there is an autobiographical element woven into the story – I’m in my mid-life now and I don’t think I’m alone in seeking out what Indigenous cultures around the world had all along – a deeper connection to country, culture, spirit, community. The things that most of Western society seem to be lacking a little of.

 

Visit Melbourne Art Fair, on from 20 – 23 February at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Click here to secure tickets.
Michael Cook is represented by Jan Murphy Gallery (Meanjin/Brisbane).