Marcos Kueh
Every year, Dutch Design Awards (DDA) honours the best Dutch designers and their most impressive and groundbreaking projects. Various disciplines, viewpoints and solutions are judged in light of the impact they have on our society. Dutch Design Awards thereby gives a boost to the profession as a whole. The best Dutch design, viewed in perspective and placed on a pedestal.
DDA nomination 2023 | Young Designer
In Borneo, people wove their myths and stories into textiles, to convey certain morals and values. Marcos Kueh sees his practice as a contemporary version of this. His work deals with postcolonialism and researches which stories we want to preserve. He uses techniques from various Southeast Asian countries and combines them with thorough knowledge of every machine he uses, with his experience in all kinds of weaving looms, and designs and develops his own textiles. This is how Marcos makes invisible gods, spirits and ideas visible, so that we start thinking about their relevance. The question he asks his audience: Do you just see beautiful textiles? Or are you really listening?
Expert jury
Marcos Kueh’s work is refined and communicative. He thinks cleverly about image culture and plays with symbolic iconography from East and West. He blends these elements together in his work, creating a style in which different cultures both come together and clash simultaneously. In doing so he illustrates the importance of modern myths as an antidote to colonial narratives. The textile itself is of high quality and literally forms a fabric between people from various backgrounds, who can all recognise something in it or are stimulated by it. The stunning aesthetics of his designs are the result of high-end graphic design, thorough research and craftsmanship. Contagious and convincing.
For more information about the nominees and the DDA Awards Show you can visit dutchdesignawards.nl.
Photography: Michel Claus, Patty van den Elshout, Aaryan Sinha