A Conversation With … Dar Smith
Photography Thea Elder
Founder of the design label, ‘The Brutalist’, Dar Smith is an enigmatic force carving a space for progressive jewellery design in Australia. Dar is about to wrap up his month long stint at The Brutalist pop-up in Newtown, so we sat down and chatted life in Berlin, inspiration for his collections, and how he has reconciled his design work with his music production.
BYO: How did you start designing?
DAR: I started designing many, many moons ago. I couldn’t find anything unique, or anything interesting to wear, so I just started manipulating my own wardrobe. That’s how it all started, when I was about 16. That was a while ago now [laughs].
BYO: How did you make the jump from doing that, to making really sophisticated pieces of jewellery?
DAR: It was the same idea and the same concept of me not being able to find any jewellery that got me really excited. It was very limited in Australia, so that was the inspiration and the drive behind it…to create something that was unique and that I couldn’t find anywhere. It took about two years of sampling and creating textures to create my first piece. Initially I taught myself how to do basic metalsmith and then from there I did a few courses. I think that’s why the processes and some of the textures look the way they do…it was a very old-school method of design, using charcoal blocks and hammering and soldering to create those organic, raw textures.
BYO: You were living in Berlin as a DJ and producer for a while. How did you start your record label, ‘Distopic Utopia’, and how does that relate and intertwine itself with your design work?
DAR: I started DJ’ing first, before I was a producer, in Sydney years and years ago. I was on the local scene and circuit playing at parties in Sydney and Australia, and then from there I was playing an afterparty and a DJ saw me playing and invited me to go to ‘Burning Man’, as well as touring around at all these festivals. That’s how I got into the label side of things with him, and basically became partners with him in his record label. Long story short, I left that label to create my own vibe and my own thing because I was a bit uninspired by creating the same kind of house music for a while. I wanted to create my own realm. So, I moved to Berlin, took some time off music, and focused on ‘Breath and Stone’. I was showing in Paris, and doing all these installations in Europe, and just when I thought that I was happy just playing a few gigs here and there…I was at Panorama bar and ran into an old school friend from Australia. We started chatting and had a few drinks, and then…well we started writing music together. From there we created what is now ‘Compound X’ and ‘Distopic Utopia’. Basically, that’s how the record label came about - - it was super organic and natural. So at first it was almost impossible to work between the two (producing music and jewellery making and designing) and trying to figure out a good structure in order to make my balance flow harmoniously, but they kept finding each other.
Photography Thea Elder
BYO: Where did the inspiration for the name ‘The Brutalist’ come from? What is it to you?
DAR: Well, it’s actually very simple. It has two parts; my love for brutalist architecture, I love the stark, minimal, kind of modernist, very clean aesthetic, it’s aggressive yet beautiful. Secondly, my brother’s name is Klute, and when I was born, my mother wanted to call me Brute. So that’s where the name ‘The Brutalist’ came from.
BYO: Tell us about your most recent collection for ‘Breath and Stone’’s ‘Nomad’s Dominion’.
DAR: So Nomad’s Dominion is basically a lot of artefacts I have collected over the last ten years made into jewellery. Things like bear claws and monkey skulls. I spent a lot of time in North America and Canada, so I just started collecting all of these artefacts. The whole inspiration was wanting to create a collection where I took found artefacts and brought them to life. The whole concept was just to create something more true to my aesthetic but was still accessible. I wanted something a bit more functional with stacked rings, textures, and polished pieces. We really want to shoot this collection in the Atlas Mountains sometime next year.
BYO: How did you come up with the concept for your sustainable leather brand ‘Body Code’?
DAR: Body Code is another way of trying to be conscious of animal agriculture and it’s subsequent waste. So the leather’s that I use are a by-product of that. I wanted to create a collection where I utilised that waste as much as possible, whilst simultaneously keeping musicians and DJ’s who travel a lot in mind. I’m trying to create something that will last for them, and complete all their travel apparel for their usb’s and records etc.
Photography Thea Elder
BYO: Talk us through your creative process.
DAR: It’s pretty intense. And long. Super long. That’s why i’ve only released 3 collections since 2012. This will be the fourth. The creative process is super long and arduous but it’s very visual. I get ideas constantly. I have Synesthesia as well and I see colour in sound. And numbers as well, which is really weird. It took me a while to figure out what that was. So, I’m very visual, I design very visually. It could be a sign, it could be a tree, it could be anything that I see - - like I could see a door of a car and then see the shape of a pendant that I want to make. Then I sketch that down. I have piles of books of designs. From there, I narrow that down which was how the initial collection was design actually. So I’m just inspired by my surroundings.
BYO: Whats your plans for 2020?
DAR: Well, I’ll be in Australia for the first part of 2020, then I will be going back to Berlin at the end of April to do a Brutalist pop-up in Berlin and possibly one in Paris for fashion-week in July. I’ll be spending the Summer in Europe touring and doing some showcases for our record label. I’ll be releasing another collection next year…hopefully [laughs].
From the opening
Photography Toni Veziris
