Cook’s works appear like visions from a dream. The layering of images and textures create seductive surfaces, but below their beautiful surface uncomfortable truths about the history of Australia are revealed.

This aesthetic is put to full effect in Broken Dreams 2010 which follows the imaginary journey of the central figure—a beautiful young Aboriginal woman—who dreams herself into Victorian-era life. In her dreams she is curious about the culture of her colonisers and she decides to embrace it. She dresses in their beautiful garments and looking every bit the part she travels from the British Empire to Australia. However, as her journey progresses things shift as she realises that their culture is not her culture.

She begins to understand the devastating impact the colonisers are having on her people. She removes her newly acquired clothing and starts paying attention to a Rainbow Lorikeet—a symbol for her land and culture--that had been following her throughout her journey.

Michael Cook
Broken dreams 2010
Left to right
Broken Dreams #2, Broken Dreams #3, Broken Dreams #4, Broken Dreams #5, Broken Dreams #7
inkjet print on paper
edition 8 + 2 AP
Collection of the University of Queensland
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2014
Courtesy the artist, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane and THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne