Born in Sydney, Nicola Smith received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School, and her Honours Certificate from the University of Tasmania, Hobart. She is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery in Sydney.

Nicola Smith looks to the relationship between cinema and painting. She is concerned with the process of painting, with looking, with repetition, and with the passing of time. 

This series in oil draws from Belgian structuralist filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s first feature Je tu il elle (Belgium/France 1975). Written, directed, and starring Akerman, the film in black and white is emotionally complex, aesthetically spare, and with her characteristic long takes. 

The first incarnation of the series was shown at Artspace, in the 2015 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging). This next set of works from Je tu il elle comprises two scenarios, and five works. In the bedroom, in the morning, Julie (Akerman) gets out of the bed in the final frames of the very last scene.
And the evening before, Julie is in the dining room with her former lover, a patterned cloth on the table.

Postscript: in October 2015, and midway through Smith’s project, Akerman took her own life. Her most recent film No Home Movie was released on 10 August 2015. 

Chantal Akerman 6 June 1950 – 5 October 2015.