Thunder Head and Rainbow Face Mike Cooke

This project intends to transform the environment of the Blue Oyster Gallery with an immersive installation of wall paintings; a saturation of colour and shape forming characters rendered through a familiar, figurative visual language. Like scenes in a movie, songs on an album or chapters in a book, the panels create a sequential track around the space enveloping the participants leading them through the detailed fictive subject matter, as mural passed on the street. The subjects may be acting out various situations or just existing passively on the painting surface. There is a hint at an elusive narrative, allowing participants to respond by engaging their own imaginations and constructing their own analysis.

“My painting practice allows me to explore a desire I have to communicate using a particular artistic process, with outcomes that often project what can be described as contemporary hieroglyphic ramblings.” - Mike Cooke 2008

Mike Cooke graduated from the Dunedin School of Art in 2004.