Textile Art: Hand Sight (study)

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Photo-based textile art piece exploring synesthesia. Two men are smiling and standing with a arm around each others' shoulders. They are outside, and it is winter. Behind them are some bare trees and an evergreen, with clear blue sky. One man wears a bright red flannel jacket. The other wears a shimmery gray jacket. Overlaid onto the photo are two polaroid close-ups of each jacket, placed directly above and slightly overlapping each body.

I created this photo-based textile art piece in 2021, but I did the hand-sketch a few years before on scrap paper (below).  

Pencil on paper drawing of two figures embracing arm over arm. In the foreground, slightly overlapping their bodies, is a rectangular box, which is meant to depict a photograph collaged onto the image. This is a conceptual exploration of what became a textile art photograph.

However, the idea was inspired by some photos I found in the trash around 1991 (below).  Back then I lived in the East Village in NYC. I did a lot of work with found objects back then. In fact, some people called me the trash king.

If memory serves, the detail image of the sweater was inside the gatefold photo. The paperclip and brass safety pin are my additions.

I like the idea that the hand can ‘see’ in a sense, making a picture in the mind of what it feels. A kind of synesthesia.

Scan of a notebook page with an older color photo in the background and a detail photo in black and white in the foreground. Behind the notebook page sticks out another piece of paper with handwriting, illegible. The detail photo is of a dress, inspiration for the textile art photograph piece by Derick Melander in 2021.
Turn your head sideways to read the amusing notes 🙂

I guess I was making ‘textile art’ even then. Ideas sometimes take a while to percolate for me. I’m still not completely sure what this piece is about, but I keep coming back to it, so I’m going with it.

Thanks to the ever so patient Scott Hall for posing with me. See more of my drawings here

@derickmelander

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