Sad, 1998-03
light jet print from Polaroid original
200 x 100 cm
Edition of 15

In the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Deacon produced a series of works parodying the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. In the original film, Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farmhouse in Kansas to a magical land of Oz. In this internationally renowned series, Deacon transforms the journey undertaken by the original characters into a contemporary recognition of her own Aboriginality. Dorothy, now known as the ‘traveller’, appears alongside a ‘sad’ tin man, a ‘slow’ scarecrow in blackface, and a ‘scared’ cowardly lion. The character’s quest for self-realisation resembles the personal journeys many Aboriginal people go through every day. The series is widely acknowledged as one of Deacon’s most iconic images, and has appeared as the front cover of Deacon’s first published book, Walk don’t look blak from her solo exhibition at MCA in 2004.

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