Michael Cook (AU)

Livin' the dream

23 January 2021 - 14 March 2021
Image: Michael Cook [Livin’ the dream (Welcome Home)], 2020. Courtesy the artist and THIS IS NO FANTASY.

Image: Michael Cook Livin’ the dream (Welcome Home), 2020. Courtesy the artist and THIS IS NO FANTASY.

When

23 January 2021 - 14 March 2021

Region

Regional

Venue

Horsham Regional Art Gallery [i]
80 Wilson St, Horsham
Daily, 10am – 4pm

Accessibility

Wheelchair access, Accessible Toilets, Accessible Parking

Michael Cook offers a retake on Australian history by imagining a contemporary Indigenous community with Aboriginals living the lifestyle prescribed by white norms. Carefully choreographed images reflect on notions of truth and identity, and consider how art and images shape history and cultural memory.

Highlighting disjuncture between the reality of Indigenous life and the white Australian dream/ideal, he raises the questions ‘what makes a person civilised?’ The images explore the ongoing effects of colonisation and cultural marginalisation, and suggests how different history might have been if those Europeans had realised that the Aborigines were indeed civilised.

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Artists

PHOTO Channel

Founding Partners
  • Bowness Family Foundation
  • Naomi Milgrom Foundation
Major Government Partners
  • City of Melbourne Arts Grants Program
Major Partners
  • Maddocks

PHOTO Australia respectfully acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which we work and live, and the rich and diverse Indigenous cultures across what is now called Australia. For over 60,000 years, Indigenous arts and culture have thrived on this sacred land, and we honour Elders and cultural leaders past and present. This was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

01–24 March