Bois de noyer et de peuplier, résine époxy, vernis à ongles et finition à la cire d’abeille, 2025
Three handmade matches, made of wood, resin, and nail polish, sit at the bottom of a walnut-wood frame. In Hearth, truth and potential are distorted through material trickery, complicating notions of responsibility.
This piece is from a body of work centred around the forest as a site of deep ecology and industrial exploitation, stemming from longstanding work experience planting trees.
Maddie McNeely, originally from Toronto, is an artist based in Québec’s Eastern Townships. In her sculptural practice she engages with narratives of physical and relational labour, unfolding through replicated forms in which shifts in scale and form reconstruct meaning.
Her work has been shown at Centre CLARK (Montréal), Patel Brown (Montréal), Pumice Raft (Toronto), Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax), the Khyber Centre for the Arts (Halifax), and elsewhere. She has participated in residencies at Est-Nord-Est (Saint-Jean-Port-Joli), MOTHRA (Toronto), White Rabbit (Nova Scotia), and others. McNeely holds an interdisciplinary BFA from NSCAD University and an MFA in sculpture from Concordia University.