Carefully Crafted Sculptures Made From Laundry

Our clothes have a lot of character. Take a look inside someone’s closet. It can truly tell a story about that person and their life.

When asked where he got the idea for creating sculptures out of second hand clothing, artist Derick Melander said, “When I come across a dress with a hand-sewn repair, or a coat with a name written inside the collar, the work starts to feel like a collective portrait.”

Derick even organized an event called “Into The Fold” where he and volunteers created a 5 x 7 foot tall sculpture from 3,615 pounds of used clothing, which they meticulously folded. 3,615 pounds represents the amount of textile waste created by New Yorkers every 5 minutes. Wow! You can see the specifics of this event in the video below.

Since I work very closely on a weekly basis with the homeless here in Atlanta, I am very familiar with the task of clothing everyone. It’s especially challenging to find the right size clothes at the right time for someone that is homeless yet has finally landed a job interview. This artwork is very inspiring to me.