Accessibility Links

Michael Smither: Of Crimson Joy

39m Documentary 2018

Tony Hiles delivers the ninth episode in his documentary series _2009–2019 Michael Smither: The Next Ten Years _catching up once more with his friend, the artist and composer at the easel and piano.

Smither continues to work on the large portraits of self and friends which we first saw in 2016. Abandoning the unsettling implications of jihadist propaganda he had entertained at the time, he reframes the imposing faces with collar-lines, engaging as ever in his narration of the visual ideas at play.

Failure to sell the painting that was the subject of Light Through the Trees triggers a more radical act of recovery. In a case study for future students of pentimento, what originated as a study of winter light through the boughs of an ancient pohutukawa is reworked into an expression of high summer.

Poetry is the subject of the film’s third chapter. The artist exhibits and discusses the recent restoration of ‘The Sick Rose’, his 1970s acrylic panels rendering the William Blake poem; then sings his own delicate setting of a poem by his late boon companion, Peter Jacobson. Loss and recuperation are the recurrent themes here, with the film ending on a celebratory montage of work accomplished.

Director

Tony Hiles

Producer

Tony Hiles

Director of Photography

Tony Hiles

Editor

Daria Malesic

Sound

Paul Wedel

Language

English

Country

New Zealand

You may also like

Michael Smither: 10
38m Documentary 2019
Michael Smither: Artist in Residence
40m Documentary 2010
Michael Smither: Into Perspective
55m Documentary 2011
Michael Smither: Life and Death
55m Documentary 2013
Michael Smither: Light Through the Trees
41m Documentary 2017
Michael Smither: Music
45m Documentary 2014
Michael Smither: Portraits
43m Documentary 2016
Michael Smither: Prints
56m Documentary 2015
Michael Smither: Shared Harmonics
41m Documentary 2009

Download the app to view your purchased content!