Individuation

Michael Cook’s images have, for over ten years, considered Australian history and its intersection with his own biography, tracing the culture of pre-colonial times imbued with the promise of a different future. With Individuation (named for the term coined by psychologist Carl Jung which describes the process of developing an authentic individuality), it is contextualised with Cook’s deepening personal interest in what urban dwellers really need. This is at odds with the societal conditioning which turns us outward, toward materiality and external validation.

His luxuriously beautiful – and Balenciaga-studded – imagery probes these drivers, also central to the social and environmental difficulties Western societies face globally. It taps into the knowledges Indigenous societies possessed pre-colonisation, and sums up what Cook, now mid-life, has learned to apply in his own life to achieve greater authenticity.