Hand-me-down haberdashery is high art

Local artist’s cloth couture

By Adriana Serafino | Manor Ink

In daily life, everyone wears many different outfits, clothing that helps represent parts of ourselves and personalities. An artist who focuses on creating sculpture and art pieces created from discarded clothing, material that holds memories of persons’ daily lives, is Derick Melander. The artist splits his time between his home in Callicoon Center and New York City.

“I often encounter hand-sewn repairs, worn-out knees and even people’s names written inside collars. These traces produce an uncanny sense of intimacy, making the clothing feel alive to me. Second-hand clothing doesn’t represent the body; it remembers it,” said Melander.

Throughout Melander’s life, he has always made things. One day, a family friend asked what him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Because the answer seemed obvious, he was surprised the friend didn’t already know. He wanted to be an artist. But it wasn’t an easy path.

“In high school, I was struggling with my sexuality and getting picked on a lot. I wasn’t macho, I was bad at sports, I listened to punk rock, which was transgressive at the time, and I dressed funny,” said Derick.

Melander’s enthusiasm for making art was discouraged when kids destroyed his ceramic pieces in school. It took nearly a decade before he started creating artwork again.

After high school, Derick Melander attended a two-year trade school for radio and television, and there he had the freedom to experiment and was able to find other artists. Later on, when he was 27, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

In 2000, Derick discovered a passion for using second-hand clothing in his artwork. He started by using stacked clothing as pedestals to display the metal suitcase sculpture.

Slowly, within a few years, clothing became the main material and focus of his art. He sources the clothing from textile recycling companies and donations from friends and family, acquiring unwanted garments of all types.

Currently, Melander has a collaborative exhibit with artist Kelly Reemtsen at Galleri Oxholm in Køge, Denmark. For the show, he created folded clothing sculptures inspired by the colors of Reemtsen’s paintings of dresses and skirts.

The way Derick Melander uses many different textures and colors within each art piece creates a compelling style, one that conveys the meaning behind the artwork.