FK chats to Dale about his ever transforming creative label, Dale Hardiman. We were lucky enough to have Dale debut at the recent Melbourne Markets!
Tell us about your label Dale Hardiman and what the concept is behind it?
The work you’d be most familiar with is my Polly home-wares and jewellery. The work was never really conceived in that form, it began as furniture pieces for a solo-exhibition I had last year in Bendigo (link to movie of exhibition is here). The exhibition was a part of research/ experimentation I had been doing at that time into the particular material and it’s possible uses. My work has a huge focus on alternative materials and the actual design of the process of creation, so it just so happened the material I’d been working on for my exhibition could also be formed into unique home-wares and jewellery!
What is your background and how did you get started working with objects and furniture?
I graduated from the Associate Degree in Design (Furniture) in 2011 and am currently completing my honours in the Bachelor of Design (Industrial) at RMIT. I always wanted to be an artist when I was younger, but as I got older I started to think about the potential possibilities of creating 3-Dimensional work, from that spurred an interest into furniture design!
How has your creative style developed over time? and what inspires your work?
Inspiration has always come from daily activities, and then questioning the processes involved. As I’m heavily involved in the design sector, I see manufacturers and contemplate how I could replicate that process but within my own house-hold! I also look at the way things were manufacturing historically. Theres also nothing better then finding a new material, and spending months just playing with it to find it’s strengths, weaknesses and possibilities. I would like to think that my work has no real particular style, and that each series of work takes on it’s own aesthetic, and is indicative of the experimentation that took place to create the work.
What is your workspace like? and what is your creative process?
My workspace is located at my own share-house in Coburg! I have a shared open space with a house-mate who is a costumer designer, which is an interesting mix as she sometimes has to look at how to create obscure costumes, which involved different materials then usual clothing! My creative process is generally 80% experimentation, with very little computer work and sketching involved. I’m interested in how the material or process can dictate a form, rather then the form being designed, then the material and process being chosen to suit it.
What do you love about working with objects and furniture? And what are some of the challenges?
FInalising a work has always been the most challenging, as I focus more on the process, the form can sometimes present itself in completely different ways. Objects and furniture I have found to be the most interesting to work with. I was always a lover of 2Dimensional work when I was younger, but 3Dimensional work really allows you once you’ve prototypes something to trial the product, sit on it, eat from it, really test the product!
What new plans do you have for Dale Hardiman this year?
I’m moving more away from craft work (as that was always my focus), with a new Polly pendent light being release at Designex in May, along with a new desk light in July. I’m also curating a new design exhibition which opens on the 3rd of May at Brunswick Street Art Gallery. Emily Green and myself also started working on a collaborative piece earlier in this year! My collaborative company LAB DE STU are apart of a lot of exciting exhibitions this year, as well as giving talks at the Melbourne Museum as part of Top Designs.
image credits: all images featuring Pogle jewellery by photographer Kobie Nel. All homewares images by Georgia Hutchison
