Material Intelligence

Chloe Bensahel and Kelly Jin Mei in conversation.

What kinds of intelligence are carried within handmade practices, and what happens to them as systems of labour, technology and value continue to shift?

Join artists Chloe Bensahel and Kelly Jin Mei for a public conversation exploring handmade practices as sites of knowledge, labour and cultural transmission. Through textiles, language, repetition and acts of making and unmaking, the discussion will consider how craft can hold forms of embodied intelligence that exist beyond systems of productivity, efficiency and technological value.

Drawing from their respective practices spanning weaving, botanical research, crochet and processes of unravelment the conversation will move between histories of decorative arts and contemporary material practices to reflect on how shifting social, technological and economic conditions continue to reshape our understanding of labour, material value and what it means to make by hand today.

The conversation will be moderated by a guest speaker to be announced.

Chloe Bensahel’s residency is supported by Yukiko Ito. Kelly Jin Mei's residency is supported by Delfina’s Network of Asia-Pacific Patrons with additional support from The Institutum and E-Len Fu.

Making and Materiality

This event is part of the public programme of Delfina Foundation’s first season of Making and Materiality, in partnership with Armature.