Invasion (Laser Girl) 2017

Maker Michael Cook (1968)

Date2017

Object number00055774

NamePhotographic Works

MediumPhotographic Inkjet prints

DimensionsOverall: 1530 × 2244 mm
Image: 1353 × 1997 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection

Terms

DescriptionInvasion (Laser girl) depicts three female warriors ascending from the underground railway. They fire lasers from their breasts into people, while a boy holding a large fairground-style lollipop sits still in a Thunderbirds 2 model jet and watches the death and destruction. His expression is deadpan, as though he regards the scene as unreal — another ‘boy’s own adventure’. His detachment is not unlike the recorded sentiments of British colonists who arrived in Australia and were unable to relate to the Indigenous inhabitants of this new land as people; seemingly, as a result, the new settlers were insulated from the reality of their brutal acts. HistoryInvasion explores a savage attack — albeit leavened by its irony, flawless beauty of execution, retro-look and dated sensibility — with deliberately heightened drama. These elements assist its fiction, returning the brutal treatment that Australian Aboriginals have suffered, starting two hundred and thirty years ago, at the hands of British colonists. In the current atmosphere of climate change and environmental threat, the incursion of malevolent nature in the form of invading animals also channels a natural subversion that overthrows human dominance and control.SignificanceContemporary Aboriginal perspective on first contact and colonisation. Draws on the story of Tasmanian man Woorrady, who had been transfixed on the sight of the first French ships.