Guardians of the Galaxy: the motherhood number

Brook Andrew is a Melbourne based artist whose practice is concerned with the politics of representation. Many of Andrew’s works explore how culture and identity are expressed within the context of archives and museum collections. This is often achieved through the re-presentation of archival material – especially photographic images – that have previously been used to constitute Aboriginal Australian culture within a Western colonial narrative.

Guardians of the Galaxy: the motherhood number is from a series that spanned the mediums of neon, screen-print, collage, sculpture, photography and painting, also incorporating images from personal and institutional archives such as the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology in Cambridge and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney. The works’ title hints at Andrew’s interest in science fiction and mysticism, including as modes of storytelling. Both of which are used here as a format to present alternate histories that revise colonial and modernist legacies. Surreal juxtapositions animate the work’s composition. Everyday objects and an explosive mushroom cloud replace the heads of subjects in an archival black and white photographic print on linen. These interplays highlight Andrew’s interest in power dynamics, truth and reality, and the surreal.