American artist Cindy Sherman has unveiled a series of tapestries - her first non-photographic works in nearly 40 years. She spoke about her desire to create tactile work, why she shed her Instagram dependency for books, and shared the benefits of being alone.

Cindy Sherman is one of the greatest artists of our time, and looking at her studio through a Zoom lens is like admiring a portrait of an artist in lockdown.

For most of the past year, she has been holed up with her boyfriend and his dog in a secluded part of East Hampton, New York. Behind her, training straps hang from the ceiling and a yoga mat is spread on the floor.

In one corner, the potter's wheel looms -- lately Sherman has been busy fulfilling a long-held desire to create something with her hands and with the medium of clay in a world that is hard to discern.

His career in pottery was in line with Sherman's pre-pandemic work. Since 2019, in addition to major retrospectives at institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Louis Vuitton Art Centre in Paris, she has made tapestries of the images she posts on Instagram.

These are her first non-photographic works in a career spanning more than 40 years, nine of which are now on display at Spruth Magers Gallery in Los Angeles.

Made from fibers such as cotton, wool, acrylic and polyester, the textiles are produced in Belgium and are intended to pay tribute to the country's century-long textile tradition.

Sherman plays a different role in each tapestry, transforming his image by changing clothing, accessories, eye and hair color, switching genders and manipulating facial features.

Sherman says that these chameleon-like features in her work are an act of self-erasure, rather than revealing the hidden inner fantasies that viewers often project onto her work.

If the audience had gone ahead with it, they might not have experienced the pleasure the 67-year-old artist gets from creating new characters. "I like to see how far I can go from the familiar; It's funny -- I've always felt that way."

When did you first have the idea to make a tapestry?

"I first started thinking about this idea 12 years ago. I worked with a company in California to make some samples - the quality was good, but I wasn't too happy with the results. The image shows the whole body of the person, so no details can be seen; The faces of the characters are unrecognizable. It's just a bunch of stitches. I remember thinking it would look good in close-up."

What was the next creative process like?

"I couldn't let go of the idea. I have a lot of interesting Instagram images, but I don't know what to do with them. They can't be made into [large scale] photography because they're all taken with a phone or an iPad. But it works well as a tapestry, like a vintage form of pixelation - everything fits together nicely."

Textiles and clothing are both forms of self-expression. What attracts you to them?

"I love the touch of textiles. Tapestries, in particular, have a three-dimensional quality. I was impressed with the presentation of the various skin tones and the way it took shape during the [making] process. It looks a lot like a topographic map; After staring at it for a while, it doesn't feel like skin; It's almost abstract. Clothing is another matter. Fashion can express emotions and create exciting effects in many ways."

You have spent most of the past year in the country. Do you miss New York? Or has the pandemic made you rethink the way you want to live?

"It's easier to get distracted in the country, but I enjoy distractions, like riding my bike in the summer when it's warm and tending to the plants. Of course, I love baking, and every now and then I get the urge to work and think, 'Oh, it's time to make more yeast.'"

"But I'm not sure I want to be here all day. It's really hard to give up all the conveniences that cities have to offer. The two lifestyles complement each other very well."

You use yourself as a canvas to create, self-sufficient, but do you ever feel lonely?

"I'm a loner, so I don't mind. I miss my friends and family at the moment, but we connect via email, text, sometimes Zoom or FaceTime. But I don't miss dinner parties and gallery openings the way some people do."

I read that you've created nearly 650 characters. Do you particularly like any of them?

"I haven't counted the total, but it should be close. The characters I've created lately are good, but if I feel like I'm repeating myself, it's time to do something else. Every year I have to think about how to take my work to the next level, and it gets harder and harder."

The work on display in the London retrospective, A Cindy Book - a family photo album that you have been compiling since you were a child - is evocative, showing that you were obsessed with changing your appearance from an early age. Can you share some of the creative process behind it? What would you say to that girl today?

"I started making that album when I was about six years old. My family keeps family photos in old shoeboxes, and I love going through all of them, looking for bits and pieces of my past life. I was the youngest of five children, and the age gap between me and my other siblings was huge, so family life was full and rich even before I was born. One of the ideas in creating this album was to find one's place in the family or social unit. I don't know what I would have said to that kid, maybe I would have said, 'You need therapy to laugh.'"

You set up your Instagram to be publicly visible in 2017 - has social media affected the way you work?

"There are apps, like Facetune and Perfect365, that I use to modify the image, and they have more of an impact on the work than Instagram itself. They made me think differently about filters; With them, I'll do something I wouldn't do with Photoshop. I've enjoyed it, but I think I've explored it enough.

"I use social media occasionally. Sometimes there's no desire to log on at all, and sometimes it's nice to reconnect with other people and see what they're doing. I hate being attached to something. There was a time when I used to check Instagram as soon as I went to bed. Lately, I prefer to read."

Have you read a favorite book lately?

"I read The Lying Life Of Adults by Elena Ferrante, and it was really good."

The term 'female gaze' is now widely used to describe the work of female artists. What do you think of this word?

"As a woman, I grew up with a clear sense of the stereotypes and expectations that others had for me. Especially when I was in college, I questioned these views and began to resent them. I didn't even hear the term [female gaze] until I read reviews of my work. So I didn't consciously use that concept. My early film noir work from 1977 to 1980 and everything since then has been about questioning society's expectations of me."