Undiscovered #5, from a series of ten prints by Michael Cook, 2010
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- Type
- Prints
- Date
- 2010
- Materials
- Card, Ink
- Collection
- Michael Cook collection
- Accession number
- 2013.0010.0005
Description
A photographic print in muted colours on white card featuring an indigenous man dressed in a 19th Century military uniform which consists of a red jacket, white pants and a cocked hat. The man is standing amongst breaking waves while looking through a telescope with a crocodile in the foreground. He has one foot on the crocodiles tail. There is a stamp on the reverse of the print that reads 'Michael Cook Original / Series Title Undiscovered / Print title #5 Edition 5/8'. Below that text but within the confines of the stamp is a fingerprint and a signature.
About the collection
The collection comprises a suite of ten inkjet prints on archival Hahnemuhle photo rag paper by Michael Cook, Bidjara artist of southwest Queensland. The prints are elegant, dreamlike and beautiful, featuring unlikely images of an Aboriginal man dressed in the red-coated garb of a British soldier of the 18th century wading in the breaking waters of the Australian surf. In may of the images he is juxtaposed with a native creature and some object of colonial nature. The collection is an important addition to the National Historical Collection as it explores the nature of colonial and Indigenous difference from an Indigenous perspective, and provides a vehicle through which discussions about colonisation of the land may be held.
Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:18:20 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.