CAMEO IS AN ONGOING SERIES FEATURING CANADIAN JEWELLERY ARTISTS. HERE, THEY SHARE THEIR LATEST THOUGHTS AND INSIGHTS, AND GIVE US A PEEK INTO THEIR PRACTICE.
@sophia.lengle
It's joinery plain and simple, my way of connecting to people or place, but when that gets to be too much I try to craft a sense of getting lost in the woods.
Describe your current work/practice in one sentence.
The emergent beauty of the everyday, zooming around, and old scientific instruments made of wood.
What are three things/ideas that inspire you?
What other things do you do besides your jewellery practice?
I skateboard but I'm still working on that so I'll say photography. I like to look at construction sites through the lense. I get excited about the work and start to feel as if I were part of the building process but without the labour of it. Construction can be quite tedious for neighbours early in the morning, or for the workers themselves if the going's slow. In my own experience, I'm only satisfied to see my efforts effecting progress. It's different behind the camera. I'm no longer interested in the end result, instead I'm focused in the moment.
A brooch that my mum bought. It's the inside corner of painted cedar trim with an installer's pencil mark on the back. The pin is a continuous length of steel wire that runs through to the front, pierces an ebony disc, then bends back to form the catch. It was 2021, I was living in Edmonton and doing renovations for a neighbour while salvaging waste material in work to send to Ottawa. The brooch went to the L.A. Pai Gallery in a clumsy little crate I put together, while my mum (back in Calgary) ordered it online probably before it even arrived. I guess someone else liked it too because I was commissioned to make another soon after.
What is a favourite piece that you’ve made and why?
Caleb Witvoet
Various steel bristles discarded from a rotary street sweeper with each specific location time, and date they were found. Image by the artist
Caleb Witvoet Untitled, steel and salvaged wood, 2024. Image by the artist
What word pops into your mind when you think of Canadian art jewellery?
Kept.
From April - June, I'm going to be building a skatepark in a 16th c. Dutch chapel. It's not in service though, located in Hoorn, 40km North of Amsterdam the Maria Kapel is an exhibition/project space and international artist residency programme called the Hotel Maria Kapel. I'm writing grant applications for this presently and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts has graciously helped fund the project.
What is coming up next for you?
Published: 2025/1/13
