A NEW PLATFORM FOR EMERGING DESIGN TALENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
In 2021, Suzy Annetta was invited by the DesignSingapore Council to conceptualise, curate, and produce a groundbreaking new platform for regional design talent. The result was EMERGE, a curated showcase that launched in 2022 and has since established itself as a vital springboard for both emerging and established product designers across Southeast Asia.
Debuting at FIND – Design Fair Asia during Singapore Design Week, EMERGE featured over 150 original works by 50+ designers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Spanning more than 800 square metres at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, the showcase brought fresh, largely unseen pieces to a global audience over a three-day period.
The inaugural edition, titled "Exploring Contemporary Material Culture in Southeast Asia", focused on the region’s rich and diverse materiality. The curatorial narrative was built around the ways in which designers from Southeast Asia are engaging with material exploration in their practice—both traditional and experimental.
Suzy led the curatorial vision, design direction, and overall production of the showcase. She also mentored a government-appointed curatorial apprentice throughout the project. From a database of over 500 designers, more than 50 were carefully selected for the final exhibition.
Christian+Jade (SG/DK) ‘RSS vessels’ discovered at EMERGE and acquired by the Asian Civilisations Museum (Singapore) for their permanent collection
Adhi Nugraha (IN) ‘Cow Dung series’, discovered by Paola Antonelli at EMERGE and subsequently acquired by MOMA (New York) for their permanent collection
CURATORIAL MANIFESTO
Exploring Contemporary Material Culture in Southeast Asia
If there were an all-encompassing lens through which to view design, surely it would be material. It is the one element — and driver — of design that has been a constant since the dawn of making, and continues to develop and present new possibilities. It is at once local and global, distinguishing and unifying cultures while contributing to social reality and environments everywhere.
This universality and the open brief it implies makes material the perfect unifying theme for our selection of regional talent. Without imposing an external conception of ‘Asian design’, we find traditional materials and crafts, the waste of rapidly industrialising and urbanising environments, the improvisation that characterises many regional cities, and more besides.
We’ve gathered the design talent together under the following four pillars: Natural & Local includes designers and pieces that utilise natural and/or local materials; Waste includes designers and pieces that utilise waste materials, offcuts, salvaged or recycled materials; Innovation includes designers and pieces that utilise innovative materials or innovate in their use of materials; and Unconventional includes designers and pieces that utilise unconventional materials, or conventional materials in unconventional ways.
The designers at EMERGE come from six countries across Southeast Asia; they range from emerging to established, and many have created new pieces specifically for the showcase. Most importantly, all are at the forefront of an international reframing of our existing production, commercial and economic models. Their work exemplifies their roots through — and sets new precedents on — material usage that we hope will inspire their colleagues, their communities, their clients and their end users.
