Maria Simmons is a researcher and artist embracing contamination as an act of collaboration. She collects garbage, buries butter, ferments plants, and nurtures fruit flies. She makes art that eats itself. Her current research situates Canadian peatlands as vital ecological and cultural sites, while exploring how art can bridge geographic remoteness by cultivating imaginative, embodied relationships. Simmons holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo and is currently undertaking a PhD at Concordia University in Interdisciplinary Humanities (HUMA). She is a member of the Speculative Life Research Cluster (Milieux Institute), the Centre for Sensory Studies, and the Hexagram network. Recent exhibitions include the Plein Sud (Canada), Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (Canada), Lydgalleriet (Norway), Tromsø Center for Contemporary Art (Norway), and the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia. She has completed residencies across Canada and Europe including Fogo Island Arts, Est-Nord-Est, Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, and Mustarinda. Her work has been featured in Le Sabord, CBC Arts, Esse, Peripheral Review, and Public Parking.