BIG CHIEF DEMOND MELANCON

Big Chief Demond Melancon is a leading representative of Black Masking, an African-American tradition in New Orleans that involves the creation of elaborate costumes worn during Mardi Gras in honour of the Native Americans’ support for escaped slaves. His work takes the form of clothes designed and assembled over several years, as well as entirely handmade two-dimensional works: complex compositions in which history, memory and imagination converge and which include African-American historical figures, icons of popular culture, heraldic references and references to Ashanti and Yoruba traditions.