Sophia Borowska is an artist and weaver based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Canada. Her practice merges textiles and urban space, asking what a weaver's knowledge can bring to public art and community. She creates site-responsive installations that combine textile processes with salvaged construction materials like concrete, brick, and steel. Her use of weaving's carefully engineered interlacements speaks to the logic of architecture. Using tension, suspension, and space, she immerses the audience and activates their senses of tactility and proprioception.
Sophia's works act as feminist revisions of well-known and obscure 20th century architectural and urbanist projects. She investigates women's contributions to Modernist architecture, mass housing, suburbia, and urban planning.
Starting with a case study, which could be a building, area, or movement of interest, Sophia looks for under-represented stories to tell. Her research process involves consulting archives, reading feminist architecture theory, photography, walking, and material salvaging. Her latest works have dealt with Postwar reconstruction projects throughout Europe. She explores how architecture and urban planning strategies often reflected normative social constructions of gender, labour, and well-being in these times of upheaval. Bringing to light the uncomfortable contradictions of the past, and learning from it to move forward, she aims to tell more nuanced versions of these stories.
Weaving, with its two sets of perpendicular and intersecting threads, is uniquely suited to communicating these complex, ambivalent positions.
Beginning her textile studies at the Capilano University Textile Arts Program, Sophia went on to complete her BFA in Fibres and Material Practices at Concordia University in 2016. Sophia has exhibited across Canada and internationally, often organizing DIY, site-specific installations and shows. Favouring artist residencies as a means to engage with local case studies, she has been a resident at Kunstkollektivet 8B (Denmark), La Maison des métiers d’art de Québec (Canada), the Finnish Artists' Studio Foundation (Finland), GlogauAIR (Germany), and LKV (Norway). Borowska’s textile research and creation have earned her grants and awards from institutions including the Handweavers’ Guild of America, Canada Council, CALQ, and SODEC.
Finnish Artist Residency Network interview. In English.
Profile d'artiste par Livart+. En français.
Artist profile by MMAQ. In English with French subtitles.
La Centrale interview. In English.
Feel free to reach out
with any questions or
collaboration inquiries!|