From curator Arielle Myers:
“Matthew Smith’s work similarly serves as a translation of memory to objects, centering around one particular winter in his hometown of Wabash, Indiana. When his father’s job required that he temporarily move away from the family, Smith and his twin brother were tasked with taking on his father’s role of keeping the house warm with their wood-burning stove. Smith’s memory of this task is almost mythological: a rite of passage, a coming-of-age narrative. He compares firemaking to the act of prayer: process-oriented and ritualistic, yet seemingly magical in its attempt to conjure something from nothing through hard work and faith. Smith’s narrative is one that seems intrinsic to a spirit of Americana, especially as it is tied to rural and religious communities. Through actions which are simple yet repetitious, ubiquitous and yet unique, and mundane yet monumental, there is fulfillment to be found. Smith’s work frequently takes the form of a reconstruction of objects from his childhood, and his sculptural objects in The Spirit in The Flame are primarily made from wood, much of which is sourced from the woods of Wabash. By remaking parts of his sculptures of the axe, the wedge, the splitting maul, and the woodpile out of the same wood that kept his family’s home warm all winter, he allows the medium to reinforce the significance of both the material and the process in his narrative. The one exception in materials is a sculpture constructed from a quilt, handmade by Smith from a reference photograph of himself as a ten year-old boy asleep on top of the heating vent, covered in a quilt to trap in the heat. The medium is also the message in this piece: “Home is where the heat is.”