In DESTINY, exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Indigenous Australian artist Destiny Deacon merges the tragic and the comic to expose the uncomfortable realities of Australian settler colonialism.
Destiny Deacon, Kuku/Erub/Mer born 1957, Smile, 2017, lightjet photograph from Polaroid photograph, 80.0×100.0 cm (image). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2016 © Destiny Deacon
Comedy promises to dispel anxiety, but the acerbic photographs of Indigenous Australian artist Destiny Deacon amplify rather than alleviate discomfort, something that in no way distracts from their tragicomic hilarity. Populated by friends, family and what she terms “Aboriginalia” or “Koori kitsch” – tourist tat and black dolls (often missing limbs or heads), objects replete with racial stereotypes – Deacon’s lo-fi images create an unsettling overlay between the actual lives of Indigenous Australians and the reductive lens through which white politicians committed to the feel-good fantasy of racial harmony misunderstand them. DESTINY, a comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work at the National Gallery of Victoria with an accompanying monograph edited by curator Myles Russell-Cook, is testimony to the essential relevance of Deacon’s refusal to shy away from the violent aftermath of settler colonialism in Australia. ◉
Above, Destiny Deacon, Kuku/Erub/Mer born 1957, Escape – From the whacking spoon, 2007, lightjet photograph from Polaroid photograph 80.0×100.0 cm (image) Courtesy the artist © Destiny Deacon
Opposite, Destiny Deacon, Kuku/Erub/Mer born 1957, On reflection, 2019, lightjet print 100.0×80.0 cm Collection the artist © Destiny Deacon, courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
DESTINY (2020) is published by NGV and edited by Myles Russell-Cook, curator, Indigenous Art NGV. Photography © Destiny Deacon