Preserving the past
city as part of the Icograda World Design Congress, where she listened to Cuban graphic designers share how they were limited to creating propaganda by their country’s politics. There, she was struck by how different things were to the situation back in Malaysia.
“We only design for commercial stuff, and we don’t really pay attention to anything else. I was really inspired by how much they think about design, and how much it’s linked to politics and the land,” Ezrena was quoted as saying in the AIGA Eye On Design magazine.
When she returned, Ezrena started documenting graphics, and sharing them online. That marked the genesis of the MDA. Ezrena then started collaborating with Kee, who she had met in 2005 on a project for a women’s rights organisation.
The MDA currently contains about 500 artefacts and design works, categorised into four time periods: Colonialisation, the Japanese Occupation, the Emergency Period, and Independence.
The group is currently working on expanding the archive, and digitising its present collection. The members also aim to strengthen MDA’s research dimension as well as its public engagement and dialogue activities.
MDA is constantly exploring ideas on achieving comprehensive financial sustainability. “There are many gaps in our archive which we are hoping to fill slowly and surely through this journey. But at the moment, we are prioritising archival materials from the Tamil and Indian community through Malaysia’s history, as well as material from Sabah and Sarawak,” says Kee.
“We are also looking at other kinds of intangible artefacts, such as audio and oral history, as part of this archival process.”