PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Christchurch Purchased from Canterbury Gallery, 1993 by present owner

ILLUSTRATED
p. 21 Lands and Deeds, Profiles of Contemporary New Zealand Painting Gregory O'Brien, Godwit Publishers, 1996

In Michael Smither's still life paintings, his generous artistic eye and ability to capture the complex rhythms between object and space emerge brilliantly. This work, Large Still Life with Green Plastic Plate, is one of the most impressive from this genre of his work. It expresses the way these rhythms exist equally in the details of daily life as they do in the great natural formations of land and mountains.

In this scene, a pan, plate, and fish slice are precariously piled on an upturned pot along with other kitchen implements: a game of virtual pick-up sticks. The clarity of Smither's crisp linear style elevates this painting from the status of an object study. Light is cast on the benchtop as if it is a dramatic tableau, rather than a haphazard pile of dishes. Depicting the dishes with such care and tenderness has achieved a delicate, poetic balance.

Smither is operating here in the space between mundanity and disbelief: the objects suggest a recently consumed meal for one and the washing up of dishes. Human presence is implied, but not guaranteed, and there is no real evidence of life. The teaspoons appear to levitate - all the other objects could feasibly be sculptures too.

When everyday objects are presented in such simple, profound dialogue with each other, we are invited to connect with the possibility of new meaning and expand our own internal spaces, be they physical or conscious. It's easy to feel that the dishes in this painting are in a universe of their own and that there is so much space; so much room to breathe. In a year when our lives have been forcibly turned inwards, paintings such as these take on even greater significance. This work offers a way of expanding the value of, and our relationship with, interior universes.