Unmooring: Stewart Smith’s quiet critiques
Profile of yours truly, by Justin Sullivan for Print Magazine’s “Identity” issue, designed and coedited by Metahaven.
The delay between interview and publication resulted in some notable disparities between what appeared in Print (pun intended), and the reality on the ground. During this interview I was in my 20s, had moved from New York to London about a year or so earlier, and was primarily stewing (pun less intended?) in my own pursuits. By the time this landed I was in my 30s, recently a father, and plotting our return to New York.
Thank you to Metahaven for including me in their curated issue of Print. In particular, thanks to Daniël van der Velden, who I first met when he was a visiting critic for Yale’s graduate graphic design program. I recall fondly Stina and I taking you to a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone basement show a few blocks’ walk from school one evening. You must have thought we were crazy. I also claim to be the one who initially coined your nickname “DVDV.” (Sorry!) When I’m under-slept I have a tendency to trip over strings of several syllables and this shortened / simplified the sounds just enough to alleviate that for me.