Bokarina Beach

Celebrated indigenous artist Michael Cook takes us on a journey through his new home and has us asking; “how real is real”?

Project details

Building designer
MRA Design
Builder
Bliss Homes
Product
Vulcan Cladding - Vertical Grain in Protector - Teak
Timber distributor
Britton Timbers
Photography credit
Michael Cook
Completion date
April 2020
Location
Bokarina Beach, Queensland

Recently featured in Vogue Living Australia, the pared back home of indigneous artist Michael Cook and partner Monika Skelig features Abodo’s Vulcan timber cladding in Protector - Teak; adding warm earthy tones to a minimal palette of glass and concrete.

Designed by MRA Design, the home is almost an essay in dichotomy balancing between materials such as cold concrete and warm timber cladding, textures, and the artist's incredible works of colonialism.

The images here are both of a constructed reality and a real construct: Cook visually documented a house that was briefed to be like a garden villa in the W Bali — Seminyak hotel, then embellished the results with digital inserts of select creature and character from his back catalogue of series.

In the background is our Vulcan timber cladding, in the foreground is #12 from his 2012 collection “Civilised”.

I took my favourite Aboriginal models Joey [Gala] and Larissa [Toby] out of Livin’ the Dream (2020) - they worked perfectly with perspective and pitch of light in these rooms.

Self-portrait of artist Michael Cook in the artist’s living room with partner Monika Selig, and dog Riki.

Products

See more about the products that have been used on this project.

Protector Coating Abodo Wood
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