The Krishen Jit Fund was introduced by Astro together with Five Arts Centre in commemoration of the late Dato’ Krishen Jit and is aimed to provide deserving arts practitioners with monetary aid to pursue projects in the Arts.
Photo via Twitter (@kakiseni)
One of the main objectives of Krishen’s pioneering work was celebrating original Malaysian creativity in as varied and alternative ways as possible in all the areas of the arts.
His ground-breaking theatre practice straddled and brought together a wide range of contrasting spheres, producing projects that were inter-disciplinary, multicultural, multi-lingual, and experimental.
Negotiating between academia and practice, tradition and contemporary pop culture, Hollywood and Bollywood, the mainstream and the marginalized, Krishen’s work articulated a Malaysian identity that was ever evolving and encouraged practitioners and audiences to reflect on their lives and societies.
This is the spirit of the Krishen Jit Fund, which works as an extension of this spirit to encourage and support creative work in Malaysia.
#LensaSeni The Krishen Jit Fund was created to encourage and support experimental creative work in Malaysia. One of...
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The announcement of the Fund took place on 28 April 2006 at Utih… Celebrating Krishen. This was a commemorative event on the first anniversary of his death. The Fund was launched by Astro at this event and is supported by Astro and Creador Foundation.
The Selection Panel for 2020 was:
YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Norliza Rofli – Former Director General, National Department for Culture and Arts, Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Malaysia.
Salehhuddin Bin Md Salleh – Deputy Director General (Policy & Planning), National Department for Culture and Arts, Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Malaysia.
Jolyn Gasper – Snr. AVP Corporate Responsibility, Communications, ASTRO.
Leow Puay Tin – School of Arts, Sunway University. • Shobana Sivanendran – Creador Foundation.
Ravi Navaratnam – Five Arts Centre.
The Fund is administered and managed by Five Arts Centre. In 2020, the allocation of RM33,000 was to be distributed into grants ranging from RM1,000 to RM20,000 each, for training, workshops, attachments or residencies, experimental productions, writing, or creating new work in music, dance, theatre, writing, visual or performance art.
This year the Krishen Jit Fund received 75 applications for projects in dance, theatre, film, video, publication, visual arts, music, education, training, research, and interdisciplinary work.
2020 Grantees:
1. CATRIONA MADDOCKS
The Grant: RM10,000
The Project: Contemporary Indigenous Woven Art, utilising QR codes and curated digital libraries.
In what has been an incredibly difficult, frustrating year, we are very pleased to announce that the Krishen Jit Fund -...
Posted by Five Arts Centre on Thursday, December 17, 2020
The project aims to work with rural artisans to create woven mats decorated with QR codes that utilise traditional patterns. Through the use of a QR code reader, the audience is directed to a digital library containing curated information – videos, photos, and audio made by the indigenous makers themselves.
Catriona Maddocks is a creative director, artist, and researcher based in Sarawak, East Malaysia.
Her cross-disciplinary work focuses on collaborative platform building, and developing spaces in which to explore identity, community narratives, and cultural heritage within a contemporary context. Through the lens of a long-term foreign resident of Malaysia, of non-South East Asian descent, she seeks to encourage dialogue and exploration of tangible and intangible heritage and enable crossovers and interactions between rural indigenous practices and urban creative expression.
Catriona is the co-founder of social enterprise Catama, and creative platform Borneo Bengkel, through which she produces, curates, and facilitates content and creative residency programmes for pan-Bornean practitioners.
2. JOWIN FOO
The Grant: RM8,000
The Project: Standard Operation Procedure (S.O.P)
In what has been an incredibly difficult, frustrating year, we are very pleased to announce that the Krishen Jit Fund -...
Posted by Five Arts Centre on Thursday, December 17, 2020
Standard Operation Procedure (S.O.P) is an experimental performance that explores the relationship with the newly adopted S.O.P as a common ritual to counter the pandemic and the cultural dichotomies around it.
The production seeks to imagine the possible reality where S.O.P. is developed into a superstition ritual/talisman, believed only by minorities, as a sacred practice to ensure prosperity and protection.
Jowin Foo is a graduate from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, alumni of Interactive Architecture Lab. He has been actively engaging in discourse that deals with the intersections between tech colonisation, human cognition, and architecture, since 2018.
His thesis on Hyperstition, titled The Egress where he explored the issue of cognitive decay was presented in Tate Britain IALab Symposium and staged a standalone exhibition in Here East, London.
The work was later published and archived on Architecture Foundation, UK. Recently, he started Kodkod, a collective with Lim Nong Hua and Chan Hui Sim that focuses on sensorial design, design interactions, and design fiction.
3. LEONG YOKE MEE
The Grant: RM8,000
The Project: The Music of Inner Land
In what has been an incredibly difficult, frustrating year, we are very pleased to announce that the Krishen Jit Fund -...
Posted by Five Arts Centre on Thursday, December 17, 2020
The Music of Inner Land is a series of graphic, non-fiction stories about the music of people of the interior (orang ulu) the Kerabit people in Malaysia.
Combining illustration, comics, and journalism, the stories explore the relation between music, nature, and culture.
Leong Yoke Mee (Ammi) is an artist, illustrator, and art teacher. She holds three different Diplomas: in Teachers and Trainers, Fine Art, and Technology-Building. She has participated in a number of exhibitions since 2000. She finds inspiration in creating artworks from daily experience and belief.
Art has taught her to appreciate the beauty of creation, nature, and the diversity of cultures. She enjoys using images to tell stories and uses picture books to tell stories.
She has won awards; Honourable mention for the Philip Morris Art Awards (2000) & Best Student Award Fine Art Section, Kuala Lumpur College of Art (2001). Her illustrated picture books include “Anak Murid yang Memakai Kain Cawat” and “I Belong to the Forest”, among others.
4. AW SEE WEE
The Grant: RM7,000
The Project: A Clay Stop Motion Animation Short Film
In what has been an incredibly difficult, frustrating year, we are very pleased to announce that the Krishen Jit Fund -...
Posted by Five Arts Centre on Thursday, December 17, 2020
This is a clay stop motion short film. In a world of clay people society, a husband and wife are fighting another family of thieves, who are breaking into their house. They are all finding a way to survive.
It is a film about survival and hope. Born in a family of ceramic making in Malaysia, Aw See Wee studied filmmaking in the National Taiwan University of Arts. His film works mostly focus on human relationships as well as social phenomena. Besides directing, See Wee is also involved in cinematography and sound designing.
Congratulations to the chosen ones!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
