Penang Street Art
As you take a stroll in the streets of Georgetown a city on the island of Penang in Malaysia you can't help but notice a bicycle parked outside an old house. It appears that this cycle has been here for ages. There is a wire carrier in front and some of the chrome polish is coming off. It doesn't look like this bicycle has been used in a while. The house is also very old and has an iron door, red in color with brown tints because of rust. Metal grills painted in white on the top of the door are also rusted. This all seems very natural in Penang because most of the houses have been there for 100s of years and were not cared for. So they look quite antiquated. Why did owners didn’t take care of their houses? One would assume that you would maintain the house you were living in. The reason is an unintended consequence of the rent control act passed in the 1960s that prevented landlords from increasing rents for tenants. As costs kept going up, rents remained the same and owners had no money to repair or repaint these old houses that gave the city an antiquated. rustic look. Now, this led to another intended outcome, although a more positive one this time. This old look of the city of Georgetown in Penang was so unique that UNESCO designated the city as a heritage site in 2008 to preserve this culture of Georgetown that has both tangible (i.e. the old crumbling buildings) and intangible (the lives of people living in these buildings). One thing led to another and tourists started pouring into this old city of Georgetown.
This was a refreshing change for the city as it brought more business. New cafes, restaurants, and hotels were built to meet growing demand from tourists but the city planners wanted to do more. They wanted to tell the story of Georgetown in a visual yet subtle way. They decided to use the entire city as a canvas to tell this story. In 2012, they invited Ernest Zacharevic as part of the “Mirrors George Town” project to tell the story of multiculturalism and diversity of the people of Georgetown. Ernest used large wall murals and some innovative exhibits using mixed media to tell the story of Georgetown culture. Some of the murals and exhibits are so famous that people visit Georgetown just to see them and take pictures.
The old bicycle in front of a house is one of the most famous exhibits by Ernest. On the wall behind the bicycle, a mural of two kids is painted. The girl is riding the bicycle and taking his younger brother to a playground, to their home or maybe some other special place that only these two kids know about. Whatever the place, they sure seem to be having a lot of fun while riding this bicycle parked outside an old house. According to Earnest, this art was inspired by two siblings he met during his work in Georgetown, so it is as close to reality as it gets.
This experiment was so successful that another artist Julia Volchkova of St. Petersburg, Russia was invited to paint some murals. She painted murals in Georgetown as well as in another small rustic town Balik Pulau in Penang.
Once these murals and art got popular, many other folks started using art in the city of Penang without support from the city. Some businesses used art to create billboards for advertising their products in a subtle way.
Street art is not a new concept. Banksy in London has created many murals on the walls of London city that are cherished by its residents. But people don’t associate London with street art. What’s special about Georgetown and Penang is that street art has transformed the entire city and has given it a new identity. Tasteful street art is a brilliant idea that has the power to create awareness of art by masses and at the same time it helps local artists. It truly is an idea worth promoting and preserving
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