A Day in the Life: Kelly Jin Mei

Vedurnan at Biennale Jogja 18

A Day in the Life is a series by A&M where we invite artists to share a day in their life through images accompanied by brief descriptions.

Kelly Jin Mei.

Kelly Jin Mei first picked up crochet and knitting at the age of six, drawn to the textures and rhythms of thread and loop. Today, the Singapore-based artist creates textile-based works that foreground the materiality of her medium, while tracing its cultural histories and practical applications. Her practice ranges across soft sculpture, textile hangings, and multimedia installations, each piece approached with a deliberate yet intuitive sense of layered composition.

In this article, she discusses Vedurnan, her latest work currently on view at Biennale Jogja 18: KAWRUH: Land of Rooted Practices from 5 October to 5 November 2025. The piece continues a line of inquiry first explored in Anekanta (2024), presented at ART SG earlier this year.

Kelly Jin Mei, Vedurnan, installation view at Biennale Jogja 18. Image courtesy of the artist.

This photo shows the shadow cast by Vedurnan on a fabric screen, inspired by the presentation of wayang kulit. In the middle is Hainuwele (Coconut Girl), a mythological figure from the Maluku region in Indonesia. In the background, a river splits the scene, creating a divide between the indigenous methods of sago harvesting and the lure of modern luxuries, symbolised by Chinese ceramics and rice farming.

Kelly Jin Mei, Vedurnan, installation view (back) at Biennale Jogja 18. Image courtesy of the artist.

Going around to the back of the installation, one can see that the work presents a different image from the front. This is the Sekar Jagad motif, dyed using the batik (wax-resist) method. The variety of patterns in the same fabric symbolises unity in diversity, yet it hides the true image in the lace, much like how the ideological “national identity” buries alternative voices.

Work-in-progress digital draft of lace pattern. Image courtesy of the artist.

Rough composition with photo references and doodled lines. The frame pattern is appropriated from an antique European lace pattern from the early 1900s. My process is mostly manual: I draw lines of different colours to mark the gauge, drag in my inspiration images into a rough collage, then doodle composition lines. The white squares are filled in one by one on a black background to represent the solid crochet blocks. Because the final work is meant to be seen in shadow, I have to think in inverse for example, a dark-skinned person is filled in with white pixels; a light source is not filled and left ‘black’.

Kelly doing a test for the shadow midway through crocheting, from the sunset coming in through her window. Image courtesy of the artist.

I crochet with a 0.75 mm hook, working from right to left. Each vertical row takes between 40 and 70 minutes, depending on complexity, so during the production period, I usually crochet for about 12 hours a day. It gets quite hard to tell what the image is, as there is no colour, so I periodically check by placing it against a dark background or casting a shadow. Since my window faces the sunset, it’s the perfect reminder to do a check at that time of day.

Batik artisans at Sarasa House Jogja using the tjanting on crochet lace. Image courtesy of Sarasa House Jogja.

Because the crochet lace is thicker than regular fabric, using wax on it is challenging. My collaborator, Heru from Sarasa House Jogja, has to wax the fabric on both sides to ensure the dye does not spread into other areas. They use only natural dye, and in this work we see shades of indigo and mahogany tree bark. There are about four to five rounds of waxing, dyeing, then waxing again in order to achieve layered colours. The wax is then removed by boiling with tapioca powder.

Visit Kelly’s website here or follow her on Instagram at @kllylmrck to see more of her works.