Summer holiday, I've back to George Town (Penang) as usual. To kill boredom, I had decided to go out and discover some street arts that are very popular in George Town since 2012.
The arts were drawn by a young Lithuanian-born artist- Ernest Zacharevic who had "make-a-scene" on the streets of George Town. E. Zacharevic left his arts in that came in the form of executed wall paintings, or murals at selected streets in the inner city (you can see from the map below). Why these arts formed? This is because of George Town Festival 2012, and the project of Zacharevic is part of it- known as Mirror George Town. The arts contained creativity, funny, fascinating and pretty much open up to everyone's interpretation. Thank you to E. Zacharevic so I could spent my awesome afternoon discovering these street arts around George Town. Before my journey began, I had this map downloaded into my iPhone so I would not missed out any of them.
This is the first one I discovered, titled "Little Children on a Bicycle".
This is a mural on the wall of a shop house on Armenian Street, George Town. It depicts a little girl taking her younger brother on a bicycle ride. The joy in their faces echoes down the street, providing a ray of cheer and adding character to Armenian Street. This combined mural painting with real props, in this case, an old bicycle, to create a 3D rendition.
"This Old Man"
Is a giant mural on the wall, along the Armenian Street, same as the "Little Children on a Bicycle". The painting is faded already due to weather and horrific sun shine. However, this painting, which appeared somewhat incomplete, depicts an elderly man who appears to be preparing a drink for himself. This mural required the scaffolding to be erected on the wall fro the artist to work. It is one of the two larger-than-life murals that Zacharevic worked on (the other two were "Little Girl in Blue" and "The Awaiting Trishaw Paddler").
"Boy on a Bike"
This mural is located on the wall along Ah Quee Street. This art is painted on the side door of a shop house and this is another art work of Zacharevic that required real props, in this case, a motorbike. "Boy on a Bike" shows a boy hanging out on his motorcycle as he watches the pedestrian traffic passing by along the street. The mural is just right beside of another piece of art titled "Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur".
"Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur"
Another art work by Zacharevic that got destroyed by many reasons I could thought of..... To see a better picture, you could google it :)
"Brother & Sister on a Swing"
This is a mural by Louis Gan, a young local deaf-mute artist who has inspired by the street arts by E. Zacharevic that bursts on the scene. It graces the wall of the printing warehouse in an alleyway of Chulia Street Ghaut. This art depicts two young children, standing on a swing. Along with this art work, a real prop- SWING SET had installed and even created a street sign called "Step by Step Lane" on the otherwise nameless back alley.
"Reaching Up"
This mural is located on a wall along Cannon Street. It is located across the street from the Anak-Anak Kota clubhouse, and within a short walking distance to Khoo Kongsi and the Acheen Street Mosque. The "Reaching Up" mural depicts a little boy reaching for a hole on the wall and he appears to be standing on a chair (there's supposed to be a real prop instead of black lining of chair shapes, due to vandalism or other reasons, the chair, somehow gone-with-the-wind) and inching himself as high as he could reach.
"The Awaiting Trishaw Paddler"
The mural is the other larger-than-life art work of Zacharevic, that graces the wall of a building on Penang Road (next to Red Garden hawkers centre's car park). The mural depicts an elderly trishaw paddler sitting in his vehicle, probably waiting for customers and it is a fitting tribute to the trishaw paddlers who congregate at the trishaw station across the road, in front of the St. Francis Xavier Church. This mural measures 15.2 x 15.2 meter, and it's the largest among all of Zacharevic's murals.
"Children playing Basketball"
This mural is located on the upper Chulia Street (just opposite to the alleyway of the "Brother & Sister on a Swing"). "Children playing Basketball" depicts two children were playing basketball on the street side with a simple pole of basketball net. The basketball and the net pole were real props that were installed with the mural.
These are all of the pictures of those street arts I think I captured the best. Some murals like "Children in a Boat" which located on Chew Jetty has had damaged 98%-----SAD! You all can simply browse through "Penang Street Arts" on Google or "George Town Festival 2012". Wish you could come over to Penang and discover all these awesome arts yourself!
The sum of all:
Until next time, xxoo :)
