Sonya Yong James

Sonya Yong James's multidisciplinary practice centers on cloth, fiber, and thread: materials she describes as holders of memory that provoke a desire to touch, awakening multiple senses simultaneously. "Color and texture can be heard like a sound while the desire to experience art by physically touching it is using the eyes of the skin," James explains. 

Working with thread and repurposed cloth, James draws on the material's references to mending, repairing, and connecting. Her practice embraces the ubiquitous nature of textile—"Cloth is always touching us"—using string, sewing, and weaving alongside found objects to construct new worlds of imagination.

James adapts age-old techniques and traditional materials to create environments and sensory experiences that vary in scale from large public installations to small, intimate works. Her practice deliberately engages with fiber art's historical association with women's work through knitting, crochet, weaving, and sewing, acknowledging these domestic practices as sources of strength while exploring the complexities of female labor.