Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the name and image of a person who has died.
The trailblazing Indigenous photographer and multimedia artist Destiny Deacon has died in Melbourne.
Along with fellow pioneer Tracey Moffatt, Deacon was one of the few Australian artists to establish an international audience with her acerbic and witty take on Aboriginal kitsch and casual racism.
Destiny Deacon inside an NGV 2020 exhibition, with some of the “Koorie kitsch” she was renowned for collecting. Credit: NGV
Deacon’s installations, videos, and photographic prints are featured in the collections of all major Australian cultural institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of NSW.
Destiny Deacon.
Deacon, born in 1957, often described herself as “an old-fashioned political artist” and was renowned for taking apart the cruelty of everyday racism while also lampooning victimhood.
In one famous work, Dreaming in urban areas, in 1993, the poet Lisa Bellear appears to be anointed in tribal body paint while, in fact, wearing a facial scrub.
Following her first exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1991, Deacon was represented in the prestigious international exhibitions Documenta, the Yokohama Triennale, the first Johannesburg Biennale, and most recently, works by the artist featured in the Biennale of Sydney at the White Bay Power Station.
The National Gallery of Victoria staged a solo exhibition of her work in 2020–21, describing her art as sitting halfway between comedy and tragedy.
