Lot 31

Gift of the Artist
Private Collection, Queensland

Michael Cook: Civilised, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, 9 - 22 December 2012 (another example)
Seventh Asia-Pacific Triennial APT7, Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 8 December 2012- 14 April 2013 (another example)
Michael Cook: Hear No... See No... Speak No..., Queensland Centre for Photography at The Depot Gallery, Sydney, 14 - 25 May 2013 (another example)
My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1 June - 7 October 2013 (another example)
Episodes: Australia Photography Now, 13th DongGang International Photo Festival, Yeongwol, South Korea, 18 July - 21 September 2014 (another example)
Michael Cook - Civilised, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong, 5 - 28 February 2015 (another example)
Mapping Australia: Country Cartography, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, Netherlands, 4 October 2015 - 15 January 2016 (another example)
All Dressed Up, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, New South Wales, 9 December 2016 - 5 February 2017 (another example)

Watson, B., 'Public Works', The Australian, 31 August - 1 September 2013 (illus., another example)
Emmerich, D., 'Michael Cook's 'What-If' Retake on Australia's History', Write About Art - Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts, Queensland, issue 5, 2015 (illus., another example)
Arcilla, M., 'Michael Cook. The Skins We Live In', Vault, issue 13, February 2016, p. 49 (illus., another example)
Meanjin, vol. 75, issue 4, summer 2016 (illus., cover, another example)

Another example of this print is held in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.

"Through a combination of theatrically staged mises en scène and digital editing, Michael Cook's works depict an ethereal dream world – a timeless place that traverses both the colonial and contemporary worlds and is sustained on ‘what ifs' and hypotheticals. It is a place of Cook's own modern Dreaming. His central question is simple: what if the Europeans, instead of dismissing Aboriginal society, had taken a more open approach to their culture and knowledge systems? In this utopian ‘First Nations first' world, questions can be posed and answered without the complication of race – there is no black and white, no right or wrong. In capturing images of Aboriginal people in stereotype-challenging roles, Cook ensures an Indigenous voice is ever-present in these works." (Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane)

© Michael Cook/Copyright Agency, 2026