Programme
Anurendra Jegadeva
Graduate Student
Faculty of Art & Design
Monash University
E/ anurendra@petronas.com.my
Political Persuasion and Personal Choices; Studio Investigations of the Migrant Experience
My paper explores the role of the artist as a social commentator and whether art can be an instrument of change, exploring examples from art history, finding parallels between Sri Lanka and the Malaysian experience with regard to issues of race and religion, and then discussing the imagery that has been prevalent in my own art practice – issues that have continued to question my place and context as well as the search for an ideal final destination – firstly in Malaysia, then in Australia and finally, back in Malaysia.
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Anurendra Jegadeva is a third generation Malaysian of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. A
writer, artist and curator who has lived in Australia and Malaysia, he is
currently the Chief Curator of Galeri Petronas, a premier art space in Kuala
Lumpur, which is owned by Malaysia’s national petroleum company. As far as his
artistic practice is concerned, he is interested in the issues of human
relations in the face of racial, religious, class and social-political
difference. An arm chair commentator and a coffee shop activist, Jegadeva uses
the often autobiographical narratives in his paintings to try and understand the
many versions of the truth that present themselves to him through his experience
with family and food and migration; his understanding of histories, official and
personal; his obsession with popular culture and his slavish addiction to
television. He offers no solutions and lives a happy and safe life with his
wife, daughter and dog in Kuala Lumpur.