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Unlearning Cook: decolonising photography, the monument and self

Golding, Katrina (Kate) ( 2017)

The practice-led research encompassed in Unlearning Cook: Decolonising photography, the monument and self has been developed as a counterpoint to dominant colonial histories. The project draws a correlation between photography, history and ways of seeing. The research presented here addresses the question of unlearning Eurocentric colonial histories, specifically those relating to Captain James Cook, creating space for non-dominant narratives and reflecting critically on colonial heritages. The spectre of Captain Cook looms large, with the impact of his three voyages felt throughout the Pacific and in his home country of England. By using a variety of photographic methods, the body of creative work seeks to examine the medium's role in colonisation and question the historical narratives signified through colonial monuments, buildings and the built environment. Existing research into decolonisation has informed the studio project. Through situating knowledge, the artworks offer a decolonial approach to multiple perspectives on contested histories. This is a conflicted, unresolved space. The creative output of this research comprises the installation of a camera obscura structure, a number of cyanotype works on paper, lumen prints and a lightbox displaying an analogue negative. Documentation of the examined works is presented in the appendix.