MICHAEL COOK: Winner People’s Choice Award – The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award 2022
"Contemporary cultural precinct HOTA, Home of the Arts has today announced Michael Cook as the People’s Choice Award Winner at the 2022 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Exhibition.
The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award provides a national platform for emerging and established artists working in the broad medium of contemporary photography.
The exhibition opened on 17 September 2022 and Michael Cook’s work Enculturation #2 has been a firm people’s choice favourite over the past 8 weeks receiving the highest number of votes.
Michael Cook is a Queensland photographic artist who creates surreal and distinctive images that examine colonial history and present-day repercussions. Cook's images unite the historical with the imaginary and the political with the personal.
The narrative in Cook's submission Enculturation #2 traces a journey through a landscape where old newspapers lie on the ground in reference to Australia's Stolen Generation. Photographed on Country with senior women painted up for ceremony, young babies sit amongst the women in a classroom-like formation as they absorb the nuances of Country and learn to move comfortably within the harsh-looking landscape. Cook's Enculturation #2 explores difficult territory with a nurturing gentleness drawn from the beauty of its aesthetic.
People’s Choice Award winning artist Michael Cook said: “My vision aims for a situation when we may all learn from the past to create a better future. My hope is that people see all colours ‘empathetically’, not just in black and white. In my work I use role reversal to develop empathy for the subject’s situation. In each image I ask questions, leaving the viewer to plumb their own knowledge at their own level. Winning the Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award People’s Choice is particularly gratifying because conveying these stories to the widest audience is the reason for creating what I do. I am thrilled that this work has resonated with the broader public.”
Michael Cook will receive a $5,000 award and emerged as a clear winner from an impressive finalist group of 40 works, selected from over 260 submissions, by Isobel Parker Philip, Senior Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW).
The People’s Choice Award also carries a prize for one lucky Gallery visitor who voted in the award. The prize comes courtesy of HOTA Corporate Partner JW Marriott and includes a two-night stay at JW Marriott Gold Coast in an ocean view room with breakfast for two daily in Citrique, plus $500 spending money. The winner of this prize was drawn at random from people who gave their email when voting for their favourite work in the People’s Choice Award.
Tracy Cooper-Lavery, Director, Gallery and Visual Arts, HOTA said: “It is of no surprise that Michael’s work stood out to HOTA Gallery visitors and to win the People’s Choice award. Enculturation #2 is a remarkable work on so many levels. Soft hues handover to a striking and powerful message, to capture your attention which has clearly resonated with so many of our gallery visitors. It is a thought-provoking piece.”
Criena Gehrke, HOTA CEO said: “It’s a wonderful experience when a HOTA Gallery visitor is given the opportunity to cast their vote and give their comment on the works presented. It’s one of the ways that we continue to evolve the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Exhibition as one of Australia’s most significant contemporary photography collections.”
Michael Cook’s photographic series Natures Mortes was recently acquired by HOTA Gallery and was included in the HOTA Collects exhibition Punching Up | 21st Century Indigenous Photography. The exhibition featured the works of six 21st century First Nation photographic practitioners.
In October, HOTA announced the winner of the 2022 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award as judged by Isobel Parker Philip, Senior Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW). wani toaishara was awarded the $25,000 acquisitive award, the richest prize for photography in Queensland, for his work do black boys go to heaven.
One of Australia’s most significant awards for contemporary photographic practice, the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award provides a national platform for emerging and established artists working in the broad medium of contemporary photography.
Australia's largest public gallery outside a capital city, the new $60.5 million HOTA Gallery opened on Australia's Gold Coast in May 2021. Designed by award-winning Melbourne-based architects ARM, the Gallery spans six levels and during its first 12 months has already attracted visitors from across the world with a dynamic program of world premiere exhibitions, Australian exclusives and new commissions.
The full list of finalists selected for the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award: Abdul Abdullah; Tarik Ahlip; Anthea Behm; Yuriyal Eric Bridgeman; Kieran Butler; Maria Fernanda Cardoso; Anna Carey; Aaron Chapman; Michael Cook; Ellen Dahl; Lucas Davidson; Jo Duck; Lyle Duncan; Kath Egan; Ash Garwood; Amos Gebhardt; Douglas Lance Gibson; Guy Grabowsky; Tim Gregory; Yvette Hamilton; Petrina Hicks; Naomi Hobson; Samuel Hodge; Eliza Hutchison; The Huxleys; Katrin Koenning; Paula Mahoney; Ali McCann; Mia Mala McDonald; Phuong Ngo; Selina Ou; Hiromi Tango; Angela Tiatia; wani toaishara; Shan Turner-Carroll; Skye Wagner; Carl Warner; Kai Wasikowski; Lydia Wegner; Jemima Wyman.
The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award is currently open to view at HOTA Gallery, Australia’s largest gallery outside a capital city, until 8 January 2023. "