Destiny Deacon

Photographic works by Destiny Deacon and Evergon are brought together in an exhibition that manifests the power of symbolic objects to stir a range of emotions, from bitter anger to sublimated desire. Deacon, an Australian Aboriginal artist, constructs powerful political messages about race, gender, violence, and sexuality from dolls, souvenirs, and other pieces of kitsch that preserve stereotypes. Evergon is a peripatetic Canadian artist whose recent work places his personal collection of “gay sexist” objects before a view camera set up in his home. This charged symbolic setting is sometimes entered by the artist or his model.

Destiny Deacon was born in 1957 of K’ua K’ua and Erub/Mer peoples in Maryborough, Queensland. She studied politics at the University of Melbourne and began working with images and exhibiting in 1990; she is a writer, broadcaster, and performer. Her photography and video drew international attention at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 1994; the Johannesburg Biennale, 1995; and the Yokohama Triennale, 2001. She was the only Australian artist chosen for Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany. The Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art has organized a retrospective of Deacon’s work. She is represented in numerous public, private, and corporate collections in Australia and internationally.