garden — Sophia Lengle

Schimmelweg (translates to mould road)

Sophia A. Lengle

Sandberg Instituut

Fine Arts Thesis: Advisor Ama Josephine B. Johnstone

thesis defence January 31 2024

Page 1

Some context

I have set out to feel through longing as it underpins a building process, as a speculative fiction narrative. For a while, I was unable to build anything in my mind or on the page. I realized that I am not starting from an empty lot. There is a house solidly there. And when I think about starting from scratch, every building is just as wet, cold and mouldy… The lot I can’t get out of my mind was built in 1932. I love this place, I loved it right away; because the house is free-standing and the garden is endless from neglect. See a small brick cube of a place surrounded by overgrown trees and vines. There is a door on the left with an envelope sized glass window and a lacy cloth obscuring the view inside. The gate to the garden comes out from the right flank. The house is one of many buildings on the lot. I can hardly navigate the garden. Layers are accumulating, as the inches build I am reminded of the houses I have witnessed and cared for before, and of the people who called those lots home. This story comes from my experience occupying Schimmelweg as my studio over the last few months.

Part of this underpinning of longing must have started with the reading I did growing up in Canada...

If you would like to read the entire thesis (speculative fiction) I will email you the PDF. Just ask me :)