Invasion (Evening Standard)
Maker
Michael Cook
(1968)
Date2017
Object number00055470
NamePrint
MediumInkjet Print
DimensionsOverall: 492 × 618 mm
Image: 433 × 557 mm
Image: 433 × 557 mm
Copyright© Michael Cook and Andrew Baker Art Dealer
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Michael Cook
DescriptionBlack and white Inkjet print by artist Michael Cook that pictures a newspaper cover of the ‘Evening Standard’ dated Monday, January 25 1965. The page on the left has a large headline that reads ‘INVASION’ and subheading ‘End of times of London: England Invaded’.History'Invasion' 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.
