In 1970 African-American film director, Melvin Van Peebles released Watermelon Man, a movie in which a fictional, white insurance salesman wakes up one morning only to discover he has turned Black overnight. The film is inspired by John Howard Griffin’s autobiographical novel, Black Like Me. In this image Deacon gives the watermelon a double meaning. The emptied peel of the melon cradles the doll’s body, kind of like the coolamon, but it is also a fruit that has been severed from its skin. She challenges the relationship between identity, skin colour, and how the world perceives and responds to both Blackness and Blakness.
Destiny Deacon
Kuku/Erub/Mer born 1957
Meloncholy 2000; printed 2016
from the Sad & Bad series 2000
lightjet print from Polaroid
original 80.0 x 100.0 cm
Collection of the artist © Destiny Deacon,
courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
