The Sime Darby Epic Painting

THE SIME DARBY EPIC PAINTING

In 2009, we were approached by the Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby Berhad to project manage this 8ft x 50ft long painting that depicts the company’s 100-year history. The painting was unveiled during their 100-year anniversary celebration in January 2011 in their headquarters building on Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

With the project brief clearly dealing on research and history, we were looking for painters with already an interest in Malaysian history – these three artists had a clear interest in this subject from their existing practice albeit very very broadly. Chuah Chong Yong is particularly concerned with heritage, Anurendra Jegadeva with the characters and people involved in histories, Ahmad Fuad Osman Fuad with the meaning of historical events. These three artists are from the same generation, widely respected by their peers and juniors. Fuad and Chong Yong have long experience working with murals and large-scale paintings. Anu has also worked in long narrative formats – while painting styles different we felt they could work well together. All artists was interested in playing and exploring the medium, and the idea of collaboration. All three artists are used to doing research as part of their methodology for example, working thoroughly with a subject and learning about their subject.