Giant Leap Forward by Anurendra Jegadeva
YOU ARE INVITED TO REIMAGINE THE FUTURE OF MALAYSIA
Envisioning Malaysia’s Future through Art and Innovation
Project Future Malaysia (PFM) is an arts and community-focused initiative dedicated to fostering an expansive vision of Malaysia’s future. We integrate science, technology, literature, and the arts to explore and manifest better alternatives for our society. Our projects are selected based on their potential to empower communities, drive positive social impact, and inspire bold visions for Malaysia’s future.
Our initiatives, like the Kembara Stories & Food Trail – a cultural walking tour and food-tasting program led by migrant communities from Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh in Downtown Kuala Lumpur—showcase the rich heritage of Malaysia’s diverse populations while fostering greater understanding and connection.
Curating Social Change through Creative Projects
At PFM, we create conditions that guide a forward-looking perspective, deeply engaging with various disciplines including literature, philosophy, film, and music. We believe that by challenging everyday assumptions, we can embrace bolder visions and hopeful possibilities for Malaysia’s future.
The arts and creativity are powerful tools for reflection and societal influence, playing a crucial role in reshaping communication, information absorption, and action. Through the intersection of creative arts and activism, we aim to spark meaningful social change, creating vibrant communities and economies.
We recognize that creativity helps us explore shared values, sparking imagination, innovation, and advancement. However, creativity and the arts are often undervalued as catalysts for building just and sustainable communities. As we confront pressing social issues, there is no better time to empower Malaysians to use their artistic and creative talents to ignite conversations, raise public consciousness, and question the essence of our humanity.
Help Us Advance the Conversation
As a not-for-profit venture, we welcome values-aligned funders, partners, and collaborators to engage in this journey with us. Whether through collaborations, programming suggestions, or even feedback on this website, your contribution is crucial in advancing our shared mission. If you resonate with our vision, we invite you to join us in growing and supporting Project Future Malaysia. Together, we can create a future where creativity, innovation, and social justice flourish.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Project Future Malaysia would like to thank Anurendra Jegadeva for the usage of his artwork, Giant Leap Forward, for this project. Anurendra is a Malaysia-born, Melbourne-based visual artist whose works is centred on breaking through political, religious and economic barriers. A figurative artist and writer with a deep social consciousness, his work is in trying to understand the immediate world he lives in, in searching for the `truths’ he depicts in his work.
Giant Leap Forward by Anurendra Jegadeva
Oil on canvas
91.5 cm x 168.5, 2009
Collection of Dipak Kaur & Arjit Singh
“Giant Leap Forward is inspired by a tourism postcard that was made during Tunku Abdul Rahman’s prime ministership. It was hilariously random as it featured a pair of Hong Kong movie stars, with the man hugging a woman against the backdrop of a newly-built Parliament House. More seriously, Giant Leap Forward was painted at the start of the lie that was ‘1Malaysia’ and the seeding of the 1MDB scandal. It also coincided with the water tank bursting on the roof and the main chambers at the Parliament House closing due to water damage. It felt prophetic in the light of the state of the union at the time. The girl in the baju kurung on the swing is my young daughter, sadly oblivious or helpless in the face of her Malaysian future. It reflected a moment of acceptance that the country was once again at the edge of something perilous – kind of our playing the violin moment while the nation burnt down. Little did we know that it was just a tiny ember compared to the shit show bin fire we are facing today.”
Anurendra Jegadeva, 28 August 2021
HELP US ADVANCE THE CONVERSATION & GROW THIS PROJECT
Project Future Malaysia wants to create conditions to guide an expansive vision of the future for Malaysia. This perspective will include a deeper engagement with science, technology and the various arts of literature, philosophy, film and music. By re-imagining and manifesting better alternatives for Malaysia’s future, we are freed from our everyday assumptions about what is possible. We can then imagine pathways forward which enable us to embrace bolder visions and hopeful possibilities for Malaysia’s future. If you resonate with the vision of this project, we invite you to grow and support this project via collaborations and conversations.
As a not-for-profit venture, we welcome values-aligned funders, partners and collaborators including suggestions of programming, improvements or corrections on this website and project.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright of artworks and text remain with their copyright owners. Please reference Project Future Malaysia and the copyright owner(s) if you are using any images or information from this website.
Project Future Malaysia 