Evey Kwong’s practice is rooted in a specific location and practice-based. Her work focuses on using craft as a tool to connect with humans and the environment they cohabit. By revealing the cultural histories and the process of making, the value of local traditions and the potential (trans)cultural histories can be exchanged and become relevant to address the challenges of climate change, social polarization and the growing technological divide between humans and the natural world.
Can tacit knowledge be used to relate to the ‘other’ and to bridge the rural and urban gap? Can objects created from stories and knowledge not only reveal the past but also generate alternative narratives for design research and for a better future?
With these questions in mind, she collaborates with craftspeople and experts from arts, anthropology and ecology to open up possibilities for multidisciplinary dialogues between people, places, animate and inanimate objects, and visible and invisible forces.
Designer and research Evey Kwong’s practice merges critical research, design, writing and environmental thinking. She uses craft as a tool to connect with humans and other-than-human communities established in the landscapes they cohabit.
Born in West Malaysia, she is currently based in Berlin. Much of her practice to date has been informed by transnational and transcultural experiences, and through her Chinese descent. She graduated with a Master’s Degree in Graphic Design from the Academy of Arts Leipzig, then immersed herself in European cultures, working for both public and private sector.
Her work spans design research, exhibition making, hands-on workshops, writing and design commissions. They have been exhibited at The Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” [DE], Museum of Decorative Arts Dresden [DE], Schloss Hollenegg for Design [AT], Museum of European Cultures [DE], HOW&WOW BASK IT! [organised by Crafts Council Nederland for the Dutch Design Week].
She holds lectures and hands-on workshops at international art and design universities regularly.
Essay, ‘Im Besengebiet / Field of Brooms’, June 2025
Essay, ‘In the beginning was the loop. The anthropology of basketry in Borneo.’, U-JOINTS — A taxonomy of connections, 2022
Article, ‘Lun Dayeh Baskets in Borneo’, Basketmakers’ Association Newsletter, May Edition 2021
Publication, Basketclub, 2023
Article, ‘Textil’, Kunst kommt von Können, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Nr. 14, 2022
Article, ‘Biegen und Flechten’, Werde Magazin, Winter Edition 2020, DE / EN
