Destiny
Deacon
FemmeNoir
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Destiny
Deacon“An art that brings objects loaded with
associations or effectively simulates events in real time and
space, momentarily bridges the gap between modes of reception
normally engaged by representations as opposed to direct
experience. In the suspended state this induces the spectator
may assimilate more readily an insight as their own.”
—Destiny Deacon
Destiny Deacon often uses irony and humour to make challenging
statements about Western perceptions of Aboriginal people, in
this work, Draclubra, 1998, she makes a pun on the
mythical Dracula figure, by incorporating the derogatory term 'lubra'
used to describe Aboriginal women.
A special exhibition of two contemporary
Indigenous lesbian artists, Destiny Deacon and Rea, were on
display at the 2002 Gay Games in Australia. Destiny Deacon
explores ambiguous humour and kitsch to create intriguing social
messages through photography, installation and video.
Destiny Deacon was born in 1957 of K'ua K'ua and Erub/Mer
peoples in Maryborough, Queensland. She completed a Bachelor of
Arts (Politics) at The University of Melbourne in 1979 and a
Diploma of Education at La Trobe University, Melbourne in 1981,
after which she commenced working as a history teacher. She
began taking photographs in 1990 and first exhibited her work
that same year.
Deacon's work was included in Aboriginal Women's Exhibition at
the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and Kudjeris, at
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, Sydney in 1991. She
held her first solo exhibition, Caste Offs, at the Australian
Centre for Photography, Sydney in 1993, and participated in
Can't See for Lookin' - Koori Women Educating at the Access
Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Australian
Perspecta 1993 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales that same
year.
Deacon exhibited her work extensively in 1994 in exhibitions
including Blakness: Blak City Culture! at the Australian Centre
for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; An Eccentric Orbit: Electronic
Media Art from Australia at the Museum of Modern Art, New York;
Urban Focus: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from the
Urban Areas of Australia at the National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra and Tyerabarrbowaryaou II, as part of the 5th Havana
Biennial, Cuba. She held two solo exhibitions, My Boomerang
Won't Come Back, at the Contemporary Art Centre of South
Australia, Adelaide and Smiling Dangerously at Hogarth
Galleries, Sydney that same year.
Deacon
participated in the exhibition Mistaken Identitites as part of
Africus, the inaugural Johannesburg Biennale in 1995, and held
the solo exhibition Welcome to Never Never at Gallery Gabrielle
Pizzi, Melbourne. Her work was included in Photography is Dead:
Long Live Photography! at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
and the touring exhibition Abstracts: New Aboriginalities in
1996.
Deacon held the solo exhibition No Fixed Dress in conjunction
with the Melbourne Fashion Festival at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi
in 1997, and exhibited in both Lawyers, Guns & Money at the
Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide and Inya Dreams (part of
the Festival of the Dreaming, Olympic Arts Festival) at The
Performance Space, Sydney. She held the solo exhibition It Won't
Rub Off Baby!: New Work at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1998 as
well as participating in Ceremony, Identity and Community at
Flinders Art Museum Adelaide and the on-line exhibition Facing
it at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.
Deacon also works with video, and is a writer, broadcaster and
performer. She was raised in Melbourne, and lives in Brunswick,
where she works from her living room/studio.
Source:
http://svc006.bne137p.server-web.com/Retake/artists/00000003.htm
Destiny was one of two Australian artists
invited to the current Yokohama Triennale - the first major
Japanese international art expo – from which she has just
returned.
The photographs in this show form a narrative told in vignettes
about a girl from birth to adulthood. It was partly informed by
news reports earlier this year about violence against indigenous
women in Australia. The show’s title borrows from an Alice
Walker poem “ . . . forced into images, doing hard time for all
of us”.
Her staged photographs are ambiguous, acerbic, ironic, naughty,
touching and painterly. They use friends and family, dolls, and
other toys and objects found round her house to confront and
up-end stereotypes, and comment – sometimes savagely, on
contemporary Australian life.
Destiny’s work has appeared in many major local and
international exhibitions including the Yokohama Triennale
(2001), Das Lied von der Erde (Kassel, 2001), Perspecta (1999
and 1993), Melbourne International Biennial (1999), the second
Asia-Pacific Triennial (1996), the first Johannesburg Biennale
(1995), and the fifth Havana Biennial (1994). She has also
appeared in many other groups and solo shows.
Her work is held in most major public collections in Australia,
and by private collectors.
Destiny is a teacher by trade. She has taught in state secondary
and community schools, tutored at Melbourne University and been
a staff trainer in the Commonwealth public service. She is also
a performer, and broadcaster, and has written for television.
For further information, please contact Roslyn
Oxley9 Gallery, by telephone
Destiny is represented by Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery
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