Demond Melancon brings a New Orleans tradition into the contemporary art world with his first solo museum exhibition, As Any Means Are Necessary, now on view at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art.
Working with a needle and thread to sew glass beads onto canvas, the 46-year-old is well-known as one of the most skilled creators in the Black Masking culture of New Orleans, also referred to as the Mardi Gras Indians. Dating back to the 1800s, Black Masking represents a mix of African-American and Native American influences.
Because Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans were racially segregated at the turn of the 20th century, Black New Orleanians in 1909 formed the Zulu Krewe, their own Mardi Gras celebration. As Melacon explains it in a documentary by The New Yorker, the Mardi Gras Indians celebrate how the Native Americans gave enslaved folks refuge on the underground railroad.
“And know what else the Indians are? The most beautiful thing in New Orleans on Mardi Gras,” Melancon said.
On Mardi Gras morning across New Orleans, from Uptown to the Ninth Ward, Black Maskers emerge from their homes to the beating of drums to parade their way through the streets wearing intricately beaded suits covered in colorful glass beads, feathers and rhinestones.
Inspired as a child
The art that the Black Maskers create is some of the most important contemporary African diasporan art in our country. And Melacon is one of the best makers of those beaded suits. He’s been working at it since 1992, when he was just 14.
“When I was a kid, I used to always run outside to watch the Indians marching by,” he said in an interview with the Charleston City Paper. “One year, I went and got my mom, I told her the Indians were out there, and she took me out to follow them all the way Uptown. I kept telling her, get the man’s number. I wanted to talk to someone and be a part of it.
“That night, I went with them until about 2:30 in the morning. The next year, I made a suit and I marched.”
Melancon was recruited into a tribe, where he found an elder willing to teach him how to bead. After 16 years, Melacon was named a “Big Chief” for his skills and his teaching the younger members of the tribe.
In 2017, he started showing his suits in contemporary art galleries. Melancon said he dreamed of getting his work into a museum collection, and that dream came true in 2016 when the International African American Museum acquired his ornate “Jah Defender Suit.”
Long days of beading
Bringing the Black Masking Culture into the museum and art world has brought new inspiration to Melancon, who takes seriously the responsibility of representation. As he beads in his New Orleans studio from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. daily, he listens to interviews and documentaries on Black contemporary artists, especially enjoying the ideas of the figurative painter Kerry James Marshall.
“(Marshall) says there cannot be people operating in the world who know more about what you do than you do. I’ve studied my beads for over 32 years [but still] have to go in with all guns blazing,” Melancon said. I started thinking about how can I make my beadwork look like I’m using a paint brush? How can I do what Caravaggio does with light? I have to create new conversations that (the culture) has never had in some 250 years.”
Melancon will spend about a year on each suit, but he thinks about them for many years before he puts beads into canvas. “I’m already studying the histories and the iconography that I’m going to use for the next suit a year before I try to make it,” he said.
As Any Means Are Necessary also includes new avenues of his beading practice, such as 2-dimensional portraits and sculptural objects. There’s a gallery wall focused on resistance and protest which includes portraits of Black individuals who have been murdered by police.
“We’re still going through a lot of injustices,” Melancon said. “In New Orleans, we’re still in a bad state since Katrina. We have gentrification, not many resources, which makes it hard to sustain the culture. Beyond that, we’ve got people killing you for dumb stuff in the streets.”
“The perception of racism that lies between people’s heads and their hearts is something that I try to fight every day with my needle and thread.”
The exhibition title comes from a Malcom X quote, Melancon explained. “By any means necessary, I have to change the narrative, I have to fight the injustices. I have to represent the culture and take it to places and spaces that it has never been.
“I’m 46 years old, and this new role as an artist, it makes me feel like I’m 13 again. It feels very refreshing. It brings so much joy for me to be representing my elders and my culture.”
As Any Means Are Necessary is on view at the Halsey until Dec. 7. Learn more at halsey.cofc.edu and demondmelancon.com.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.