Whenever we look around in response to a need, attempting to locate a suitable object in the world capable of realising the functional forms we envision for our tools, the concept of "material" may already have vaguely surfaced in our consciousness. Yet, what precisely is material? Is it mere matter that can be molded into any arbitrary form? Or a unique and exclusive essence? Or, perhaps,  something that, while possessing fixed properties, yet can transformed and elevated through specific methods? Plato once sought to distinguish between the "philosopher" and the "sophist": the former guides the soul toward elevation, while the latter teaches others the art of argumentation. Alchemists named the legendary miraculous catalyst for a mysterious material capable of transforming and enhancing the inherent properties of metals.Today's practitioners are no longer obsessed with the pursuit of a singular, essential substance. Instead, they increasingly utilise the materials in hand in order to speak for other materials. The exhibition, borrowing from the conceptual pair of the "philosopher" and the "sophist", titles the nowadays practitioners' on material as the Sophist's Stone. It invites viewers to consider how contemporary craft and art not only revolve around material as a central locus of creative inquiry, but also operate through strategies in which the inherent properties of one material are mobilised to articulate the dynamics and agencies of others. This exhibition further asks how such practices can avoid being enclosed within the impasse of "truth to materials", while drawing from "alchemy" to bridge the modern crisis of experiential rupture ─ the disconnection regarding "things" caused by the tension between "textural veneers" and "virtual materiality".