In a newly renovated apartment that doubles as a gallery they unpack their recent work. When they met here for the first time the gallerist told them the building used to be a clothes manufacturing premises. It seems fitting that this is where they exhibit together, in a domestic exhibition space, and a place of historical making, where the line between art and the everyday is blurred.

Two makers and two methods.

Dress-un-making. Existing garments taken apart, seams carefully unpicked. Fabric pieces rearranged to form patterns. Undoing someone’s past work could feel destructive, but instead feels celebratory as unexpected shapes emerge and new objects form. The objects find their place in the apartment, on a wall, on the bed. They immediately feel at home here, maybe they sense that this place understands where they come from.

Clay-tayloring. Plates and candlesticks, brooches, bracelets and pendants constructed from earthenware and porcelain clay. Rolling, layering, twisting, knotting, pressing; here patterns are revealed by the making process. Things gather in the living room and around the dining table. Although they might seem quite different they get along well.


Manon van Kouswijk in conversation with Mel Deerson The Dress-un-maker and the Clay-tailor