Artist Statement

Sofia Herr works primarily with historical fiber art practices, including lace crochet, hand weaving, and quilting. Herr is motivated by the laborious and meditative nature of these techniques, which encourage her to slow down during an age inundated with instantaneous production.

She engages with the history of the loom as an archaic computer- a tool with an encoded system activated by human energy- seeking to redefine her relationship with technology and interpersonal connection in an increasingly digitized and codified world. 

Growing up in the early 2000s and 2010s, Herr witnessed the irreversible cultural shift caused by social media and the Internet as a whole. Their work embodies a generational desire for materiality, tactility, and reality. Paying homage to nostalgic aesthetics and practices serves as an escape from a hyper-connected world where isolation lingers like a dense fog. 

These techniques also allow Herr to reflect on their surroundings amidst a major transition between childhood and adulthood, rural and urban, repressed and liberated- grounding herself in icons and patterns inherent to the medium itself and folk art traditions as whole. By presenting their work in fine art spaces, Herr challenges the elitist and gendered trivialization of craft. The work insists that it is art, but in doing so, it does not deny that it is also craft.