Concrete Poetry + Arthur Erickson's Dyde House

In this program we pair two of the best documentaries about Arthur Erickson: Michelle Smolkin’s 2002 profile for the CBC, Concrete Poetry, and Colin Waugh’s recent Arthur Erickson’s Dyde House, featuring interviews with our series guest curator, Trevor Boddy.

Arthur Erickson’s Dyde House (Colin Waugh, Canada, 2023) 53 min
Vancouver’s most celebrated architect, Arthur Erickson gave us the Museum of Anthropology, the SFU campus at Burnaby Mountain, and Robson Square, among many other gems. But Dyde House, in Alberta, has often been overlooked. One of his earliest commissions, it’s a private home nestled among the aspen parklands, a hidden masterpiece that holds clues to Erickson’s philosophy, inspiration, his methods and his future large scale projects. This 53-minute film artfully tells the story of an undiscovered piece of history and the architects fighting for its future.

Concrete Poetry (Michelle Smolkin, Canada, 2003) 54 mins
Smolkin’s film is the most lyrical and complete assessment to date of Erickson’s ideas and accomplishments in any media, filmed in 2001-2002, just before his decline into dementia, then ultimate death in 2009.

Presented with