Lot 62
Adoption 1993/2000
Lambda print from Polaroid original, ed. 3/15
signed, titled, dated and editioned below image: Adoption 3/15 Destiny 1994/2000
artist's name, title, date and edition on gallery label verso
100 x 100cm
Estimate $5,000 - $7,000
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (label verso)
The Collection of Nellie and Ron Castan, Melbourne
Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
"In this image Destiny Deacon has placed a collection of plastic, black toy babies into paper cupcake shells. Titled Adoption, this work directly references Australia's shameful history of government-sanctioned Aboriginal child removal. In addition, Adoption also pokes fun at the deeply offensive misnomer of the nineteenth century that Aboriginal mothers were both infanticidal, as well as cannibals of their newborns. Deacon describes how she came to collect dolls, saying ‘in the beginning I wanted to rescue them, because otherwise they'd end up in a white home or something, somewhere no one would appreciate them'." (Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney)
© Destiny Deacon/Copyright Agency, 2026
Centum
AUCTION
Sale: LJ8809
6:00pm - 18 May 2026
Hawthorn
VIEWING
Friday 15 - Sunday 17 May, 11am - 5pm
2 Oxley Road, Hawthorn VIC
CONTACT
Hannah Ryan
hannah.ryan@leonardjoel.com.au
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