Martha Steele (they/she) is an interdisciplinary settler artist, researcher, and, when possible, an organic farmer. Steele is often found, with soil under nails, tinkering at the bottom of rabbit holes. They are based on the territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River First Nation in the newly named “Hamilton”, Ontario, Canada. Graduating from Queen's University's Bachelor of Fine Arts and Humanities (Honours) Program in 2024, their practice engages fieldwork and archival research to both commune with and translate knowledge suspended within socioenvironmental systems. If she (me–I) had to name the intersection wherein nestles their practice, which these statements often do, it would land somewhere within art, technology, and queer ecology. Oscillating between cropbeds and the studio, Steele’s farming experience imbues their material practice with a sensibility towards recycled materials and hacky MacGyvered solutions. Rooted in land-based learning, Steele’s work fuses studio practice with ecological stewardship.

Steele’s connection to art and ecology solidified while working at Root Radicals in 2023, an organic CSA farm on Howe Island. This experience informed One Day I’ll Build an Earthship, their BFA honours thesis, which investigated the concept of ‘earthships’, imagining the potential for recycled materials to create symbiotic, queer-coded spaces of connection and care. Using locally sourced glass and steel, Steele (mm, a happy coincidence) investigated how agricultural and trade skills—carpentry, welding, seed-saving—translate across farm and studio practices. Through fieldwork and participation in the Loving Spoonful's Farm-Specific Trades Program and the Kingston Area Seed Saving Initiative (KASSI), Steele connected with queer and allied communities driving initiatives of decolonization and environmental sovereignty. These networks, with a particular focus on the Landback movement, continue to inform Steele’s research. 

Steele is currently exploring the malleability of exploitative environmental imaging technology, repositioning its hand in seeing and building speculative ecological futures. Steele has exhibited across Turtle Island, including at the Institute for Public Architecture, Flux Factory, No. 9 Gardens, the Canadian Summit Centre, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Steele looks forward to another summer of soil-encrusted nails as they prepare for graduate studies in the Environmental Architecture Program at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, UK.

Photos by Stan Przedlacki