Invasion (Finale) 2017

Maker Michael Cook (1968)

Date2017

Object number00055777

NamePhotographic Works

MediumPhotographic Inkjet prints

DimensionsOverall: 1530 × 2234 mm
Image: 1353 × 1996 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection

Terms

DescriptionInvasion (Finale) depicts a panic-stricken crowd which flees from the Horse Guards building in the City of Westminster as it is hit by explosions yielding colourful smoke and the invaders who hover above, give chase and are propelled from the roof. The sentiments laid by the cumulative images build to an Armageddon-like climax, the kind of mayhem which may remain when all standards of understood behaviour are removed. 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.