aluminum, thread, magnets, birch, glass, fir, poplar, paint

2013/2018

Magnetic levitation and mutually assured destruction.

Thank you to Robert ‘Zak’ Zakarian and Peter Gilligan for technical assistance.

Photo by Ward Bastian and Doug Mitchell

bronze, magnet, ferrofluid, thread, birch, aluminum, glass, fir, poplar paint

2018

Thank you to Robert ‘Zak’ Zakarian and Peter Gilligan for technical assistance.

Photos by Doug Mitchell

mortar shell, gold, birch, aluminum, glass, fir, poplar paint

2018

Thank you to Peter Gilligan for technical assistance.

Photos by Doug Mitchell

lodge-pole pine, bronze, eco-resin

variable dimensions

2016

With an import permit from the Alberta Department of Agriculture and Forestry and through the generous support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the artist harvested lodge pole pine trees affected by both pine beetle infestation and wildfire from the Kelowna region of British Columbia, Canada.  Each free standing tree top was planted within its corresponding base and accented with pine cones cast in solid bronze.  

This work reflects rising seasonal temperatures, the corresponding propagation of invasive species and to the depletion of natural resources, yet also points to the restorative impact of wildfire on the forest ecology.  In the case of the lodge-pole pine the cones may only open after a period of extremely high temperature, most often fire.  While harvesting these specimens, Smitham was heartened to be surrounded by baby pine trees.

Photos by Samson Duborg-Rankin

Courtesy of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

black glass, thread, mdf, lacquer

6' x 9' x 17'

2013/2016

Composed of several hundred glass droplets and mdf rings, this work draws influence from fluid dynamics and the environmental effects of industrialization.

Each pendulum hangs from an elongated Fermat Spiral (found in nature in the center of many flowers) - the blue colour pallet was extrapolated from a photograph of an Alberta sky on a crisp spring morning.

Photos by Samson Duborg-Rankin

Courtesy of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

artist sketchbooks from 2003-2013,

ash, glass, aluminum

31" x 9" x 9"

2015

A four-inch core cut through twenty three sketchbooks (5" x 7" in scale) that were completed by the artist over the course of ten years.

Photos by Ward Bastian and the artist 

black glass, thread, mdf, lacquer

5'7" x 16'5" x 8'4"

2014

Dispersion addresses the dubious relationship between the luscious colour palette used by a major oil company, and the toxic nature of oil spills/chemical dispersants. 

Photos by Jeremy Pavka/Stride Gallery, edits by Ward Bastian and the artist

aluminum, brass

53" x 53" x 8'

2013

Daisy's petals and button were hand-formed using hammers and an English wheel.  The sculpture was placed within Il Juno, an 18th century bronze cannon which currently resides on the campus of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.  

The cannon was cast for King Philip V of Spain in 1720.  In 1859 it travelled to Cuba, standing as a symbol of Spanish colonial rule there until, following the Spanish-American War in 1898, it was brought to New York as a spoil-of-war. 

Photos by Serry Park

cedar, hat

22.5" x 18.5" x 6"

2013

A formal Helvetica F, a bad boy, and a good friend.

Photos by Serry Park

black glass, thread, mdf, lacquer

9' x 9' x 13.5'

2013

Composed from one thousand black glass droplets and several hundred rings in shades of BP green, yellow, and white.

Photos by Ward Bastian

fir, cast iron

14.5" x 24" x 12'

2013

This large wooden tower was uncovered through the removal of many layers of accumulated paint.  The work was created in the basement of Steuben Hall at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. 

Photos by Serry Park

silkscreen prints

edition of 4

14" x 14" each

2013

A tribute to the late French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, whose research into roughness and turbulence led to observations of self-similarity in nature.

He is noted for coining the term fractal, and using early computer graphics to display complex geometric patterns based on repeated forms, such as those found in Romanesco broccoli.

Photos by Ward Bastian

steel, magnets

10.75" x 10.75" x 6.75" each

2012

Five pentagonal pyramid forms each consisting of five equilateral triangles. These forms can be found in geometry by cutting an icosahedron on a plane.

Photos by Ward Bastian

mdf, lacquer, enamel

22.5" x 22.5" each

2012

Each snowflake is born from a droplet of water that condenses on a speck of dust.

Photos by Ward Bastian

digital print, mdf, lacquer

36" x 48"

2012

Fun with phi and Photoshop.

Photos by Ward Bastian

Installation shots from the exhibition Dark vs Light at the Shirley Wygaard Gallery, 2007

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian

digital print (found images), wood, acrylic, ink

25" x 35"

2006

Two appropriated images of walls built by humans to imprison other humans.  The Warsaw Ghetto Wall (right) was built by the Nazi's to incarcerate Polish Jews and other minorities during WWII. The Israeli West Bank Barrier (left) is presently being built by Israel to segragate various Palestinian territories.  

Ten Golden Decades

digital print (found images), ink, mdf, lacquer

36" x 48"

2006

This work consists of seven appropriated images, each depicting a genocide that occurred during a one-hundred year period (beginning early in the 20th century).  Each event is composed chronologically on a golden spiral with the largest image being the most distant in history.  The images include the Armenian Genocide, the Ukraine Famine, the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Darfur Genocide.  

Convenience Always Costs

digital print, wood, acrylic, ink

25" x 35"

2006

A diptych of photographs from the streets of Lethbridge, overlaid with an aerial photograph of the streets of Lethbridge. 

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian

mdf, lacquer

48" x 48"

2007

Based on the Sierpinski pentagon.

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian 

fir, aluminum, hemp, quartz sphere, mortar shell

144" x 96" x 72"

2003/07

Sinkable Table began as a an effort to form a dinning room table from some Douglas fir doors and beams found in a back alley and a parking lot.  

The sand, salvaged aluminum, and mortar-shell-pendulum were added later to complete the work as an interactive kinetic sculpture. 

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian

spruce, hemp, polyurethane

144" x 96" x 96" (each)

2004

Cast polyurethane maps of the cities of Athens and Rome, each presented as a marionette, or puppet-on-a-string.

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian

spruce, digital prints (found images), glass

24" x 36" x 24"

2006

This wooden cityscape contains five images of recent tragedy - namely, the sinking of the Titanic, the Hindenburg disaster, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Kuwaiti oil fires, and 9/11.  The images on each wooden tower are placed in chronological order based on height (or length), with the most distant event in closest proximity to the audience.

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian

spruce, hemp, gemstones, amethyst, lapis lazuli, turquoise, jade, tiger's eye, carnelian, garnet

60" x 72" x 42"

2003

This device consists of seven independently adjustable pendulums, each designed to respond to the dominant energy centres, or chakras, within humans and other animals.

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian

digital prints, spruce, ink, spray paint

48" x 312"

2005

Six diptychs shot in Lethbridge, Alberta. Each pair of photos includes a black and white image of an urban space, and a colour image of the same location being activated by the artist and a bicycle.

Photos by the artist, edits by Ward Bastian 

lithograph prints, wood, aerosol

30" x 30"

2003

Branching patterns through grid patterns.

Photo by the artist, edit by Ward Bastian