Destiny Deacon: Forced Into Images

Destiny Deacon: Forced Into Images presents a selection of works from the artist’s celebrated 2001 series that have recently entered the museum collection.

The photographs of Forced Into Images tell a story of a woman’s life from birth to adulthood.

Presented in fragments, the narrative largely takes place in a staged domestic space, populated by family members and dolls, and carefully chosen props. What is real and what is imaged is unclear, creating a realm of memories, desires, traumas, and hopes.

The accompanying video, from which the series takes its title, presents the artist’s niece and nephew, sitting for the camera, bound by the frame. They play and act up, imaging themselves as they might be seen by others, and how they might be caught on video. Their interactions with the off-camera artist show the children at their most unmediated, only for the heavy editing of the work to reinforce the artifice of what is on display. Finally, the children don masks of adults and their performed re-invention continues. Produced in collaboration with Virginia Fraser, Forced Into Images remains one of Deacon’s most compelling and remarkable works.

The acquisition of these significant works has been made possible with the support of the Russell Mills Foundation.