The Great Leap Forward series of artworks was Nirmala’s attempt to criticise the wave of rapid social and economic transformation sweeping Malaysia in the 1990s under Mahathir Mohamad’s administration which saw massive environmental degradation and unbalanced developmental policies affecting both urban and rural folks. Recalling Mao Zedong’s failed economic campaign in China of a similar name, which ran between 1958 – 1962, Nirmala notes the contradiction in its call for progress and attempts to draw a parallel between the lopsided economic development driven by Chairman Mao and that by Mahathir. Great Leap Forward VI- Bakun refers to the Bakun hydroelectric dam in Sarawak that is the largest in Southeast Asia, commissioned in 1996 and completed in 2011. Its construction displaced around 10,000 indigenous people causing great resettlement distress and hydrological and other productivity issues. The work also features cut-outs of the news article written by Nirmala’s daughter Shirene that reported the inefficiencies and consequences of the Bakun dam.
