Destiny Deacon, HonFRPS 1956-2024 When they named their second child, Eleanor Nain and Warren Deacon may have sensed what the parents of a newborn often do – the infinite possibility of a child’s life. They cannot have known precisely how prolific, hardworking and driven she would become in her single-minded, almost obsessive approach to image-making in a diverse, wide-ranging and sometimes haphazard 30-year career as a visual artist. Any dreams Eleanor and Warren might have had for this auspiciously named child would be fulfilled over the next 68 years.
Destiny Deacon. An internationally renowned artist, Destiny would exhibit her work at the game-changing Documenta 11 in 2002 at the invitation of the visionary Nigerian curator, the late Okwui Enwezor, who incidentally oversaw the 1996 Johannesburg Biennale, one of Destiny’s first international forays. Before his death in 2019, Enwezor named her a key artist while conceiving the 2023 Sharjah Biennial.
In what would become the last major presentation of her work internationally before her death, Destiny was accorded an entire house in the emirate for the installation she titled Bait Blak (Blak House). She was twice included in the Havana Biennale and participated in the Biennale of Sydney on multiple occasions, including the most recent 2024 edition. Her exhibition history is eye-wateringly extensive, with solos at Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Kunstlerhaus in Sal.