Artist Bio

Sophia Lengle is an Edmonton/Amiskwaciy Waskahikan based weaver and textile artist. She earned her BFA with honours, from the Alberta University of the Arts in May 2020. Sophia is currently working on her MAIS degree at Athabasca University. Since graduating with her BFA, Sophia has continued to dedicate herself to making. Sophia has shown her recent weavings in two International group exhibitions, one in Ann Arbour Michigan (May 2021) and another in Blönduós Iceland (August 2021). With generous support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Sophia was able to travel to Ice-land this past August and spent a month at the Icelandic Textile Center residency in Blönduós. While there, she learned about Icelandic weaving techniques and wove on an antique Scandinavian loom. In 2022, Sophia will attend the Studio Faire residency in France, and also return to the Ice-landic Textile Center for an internship.

Website: www.sophialengle.com

Instagram: @sophia.lengle

Sorting Methods(Top)

Sorting Methods(Mid)

Sorting Methods(Fringe)

Artist Statement:

I approach my Craft practice with a mixture of material curiosity and selfimposed parameters. I work with what I have at hand and challenge myself to elevate a material through the time I invest working with it. In weaving, there are parameters set at the beginning: ends per inch, warp material, threading pattern etc. Yet, within these rules, I still have ample room to work intuitively and respond to my materials. I use weaving, sewing, drawing and lapidary in my practice to delve into my lived experience of womanhood and relate to the stories of women around me, past and present. The themes that underpin my inspiration, materials and creations relate to resilience. Resil-ience refers to resourcefulness, endurance, and an ongoing dedication to the many mundane tasks that have been traditionally associated with ‘woman’s work’. “Sorting Methods” is a work comprised of two weavings hung vertically, side by side. Both weavings are the same dimensions and utilize the same amount of each of the following materials; hand spun lily cordage, cotton thread dyed with avocado pits and skins, cotton dyed with sumi ink, and blue chemically dyed cotton (loom waste from a previous work).

The weaving on the right took weeks to work through because of the fine details and tapestry ele-ments, while the weaving on the left took only two days to complete. The weavings could stand alone but work together to provoke viewers to compare. What do different methods of compiling the same set of materials bring to the work? While making, I thought about how information can be gathered and woven to create narratives, but conversely how information often exists in physical standalone forms. For example, a book stacked in a case or in an archive, touching other titles, but not intermingling stands alone. What are the merits of different methods of sorting information? What is your intention with the information, to integrate or to polarize? “Sorting Methods” is the physical working through of the abstract thoughts that come to visit while spending long solitary hours in the studio. Simply put, “Sorting Methods” is two versions of the same set of threads, presented side by side. The left weaving with distinct sections and the right weaving with threads intermingling.