Artists statement

The sarcastic title of this work pokes fun at the old fashioned
idea that race should not be the subject of polite
conversation. Deacon uses a white and a Black dolly to
represent the unequal power dynamics that exist within
Australian society. The dolls stand in for people who,
based on the colour of their skin, experience the impact of
racial inequality in vastly different ways. The cracked head
of the white doll reveals an empty void. Symbolically
violent, perhaps this emptiness suggests the dolls will
never be able to fully comprehend one another’s
experiences.

Historical information

This work was curated in RACE 2016 at Wyndham Art Gallery. Destiny Deacon (1956–2024) was a descendant of the
KuKu (Far North Queensland) and Erub/Mer (Torres Strait)
people. She exhibited nationally and internationally since
the early 1990s in solo and group shows. Deacon held two
major retrospectives, in 2004 and 2020, at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney and at the National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne respectively. Her 2004 survey show,
Walk & don’t look blak, toured to the Metropolitan Museum
of Photography in Tokyo, the Tjibao Cultural Centre in
Noumea, New Caledonia and Wellington City Gallery in
New Zealand. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Red
Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement at First Nations Arts
Awards. In the same year, Deacon’s work was shown at
the Australian Embassy in Paris in an exhibition titled
Destiny - The art of Destiny Deacon. In 2023, Deacon was
included in the Sharjah Biennial 15, Thinking Historically in
the Present, conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and
curated by Hoor Al Qasimi. In 2024, Deacon's work was
exhibited in the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand
Suns, curated by Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero.
Deacon’s work is held in most major public collections in
Australia as well as Tate, London, Museum Moderner
Kunst (MUMOK), Stifting Ludwig, Vienna, Austria and
Museum Sammlung Essl, Austria.