Mural In The Little Island
AIM OF THIS BOOK
The aim of this Coffee Table Book is to give readers a better understanding and knowlegde of the murals around in Penang especially certain mural that have its own meaning and story behind it. WHY THIS TOPIC?
As I grew up in Penang, I can see the evloution of mural around Penang and of course the amount of visitor regardless local or foreign visitors, coming to Penang for the mural especially the few famous mural.Â
CONTENTS
01
INTRODUCTION TO MURAL
02 03
SOCIAL IMPACT
MURAL INFLUENCES TO ITS ENVIRONMENT
CONTENTS
04
ERNEST ZACHAREVIC'S COLLECTION
05 06
LOUIS GAN'S COLLECTION
EMMANUEL JARUS'S COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION TO MURAL
01
DEFINITION OF STREET ART IN ENGLISH
STREET ART Noun
Artwork that is created in public space, typically without official permission
DEFINITION OF MURAL IN ENGLISH
MURAL Noun A painting or other work of art executed directly on a wall with permission given
An introduction to custom hand painted murals on canvas, large oil paintings and portraits, also murals produced based on location. - Charlie Art
TIMELINE
2008 Georgetown has become a UNESCO world heritage site in 2008, as it is now a living museum - The culture in the existing buildings. It is a living museum where people can be living in the manner of a century ago. 2009 The government wants to physically brand the UNESCO World Heritage, and also making it more interesting and informative for public, and opened an international pitch for artists to come together and put their ideas together that retell the history of the streets and stories of it communities in a local voice.
2010
In 2010, the work started. To date, the town has completed a total of 52 steel-rod-sculptures. 2012 Later in 2012, another international artist Ernest Zacharevic was commissioned by the Penang Municipal Council to create a street art project called "mirrors Georgetown". He gave the town a street art of mural sites retelling the story of Penang with his own mind and ideas.
SOCIAL IMPACT
02
WHEN THERE IS MURAL, THERE ARE PEOPLE. In this mural, people often act like pulling the motorcycle as the boy in the mural was also turning behind and look. Therefore, by acting like pulling the motorcycle suit the mural for a photograph
In this mural, the little boy depicts as he wants to grab something from the hole in the wall. Then, people would like to imitate what the little boy does, as there is also another hole in the wall right beside the boy.
This mural is depicting two men pushing a door. Therefore, tourist or even local visitors would act like helping them to push the door, just to make the mural feel even more real and alive!
MURAL INFLUENCES TO ITS ENVIRONMENT
03
Some murals which are located at the same area
ERNEST ZACHAREVIC'S COLLECTION
04
boy on the motorcycle
This mural is on the wall located along Ah Quee Street. Ernest Zacharevic was commissioned by the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) in conjunction with the 2012 George Town Festival. This mural was pained on the side door of a shophouse. This mural is showing a boy hanging out on his motorcycle as he watches the pedestrian traffic passing by along the street. LITTLE BOY WITH PET DINOSAUR
This mural is also located along Ah Quee Street immediate to the left side of another Zacharevic piece, which is the "boy on the motorcycle". This mural portrays a small boy taking his dinosaur for a walk. However, this painting could have also been called as "little boy with his kite"
Little children on the bicycle
This mural is on the wall located along Armenian Street. Not many people knew that the children portrayed in the mural were actually siblings Tan Yi and Tan Kern. This happened when Zacharevic went to an event called Sketching Walkabout and he went there with a bicycle. At the same time, Adrian Tan and Ashley Teoh, the siblings' parents, who are also the members of Urban Sketches Penang, they also brought their children, Tan Yi who was only 6-year-old and her brother Tan Kern who was only 4-year old (during that time) to the event. All the children were surrounded and playing with Zacharevic's bike, he then took a photograph of the children playing and one of it was the siblings. This mural was also picked by the British daily The Guardian's readers as one of the 15 favourite murals out of 378 submitted around the world.Â
Boy reaching up
This mural is located at the corner of Cannon Street and within a short walking distance to Khoo Kongsi and the Acheen Street Mosque. The mural depicts a little boy trying to reach up from his chair inching as high as possible trying to reach the cubicle in the wall to grab something Awaiting trishaw pedaler The awaiting trishaw pedaler is a giant mural located at Penang Road. The mural depicts an elderly trishaw paddler sitting in his vehicle, and probably waiting for his customer. This mural is a fitting tribute to the trishaw paddlers who congregate at the trishaw station across the road.
Girl on a turtle
This mural painted at the side of Chulia Mansion Street in Chulia Street. This mural is a collaborative artwork between artist Ernest Zacharevic and Martin Ron. This portrays a girl sitting o top of a sea turtle
LOUIS GAN'S COLLECTION
05
Children on the swing
This mural is located down a small side street just off of Gat Lebuh Chulia. This painting presents both smiling brother and sister standing on a swing. This beautiful art was drawn by Louis Gan who is a local deaf-mute artist from Balik Pulau. The owner of Sin Bang Seong (SBS) Paper Product invited Louis Gan to draw the wall of his storehouse after reading about him on the newspaper. Furthermore, the alley behind his storehouse does not have a name of its own, he named it Step By Step lane. It is also said that the name of the street could be probably inspired by the SBS Paper Product company as the lane and the company have the same first initials which are SBS. The owner of the company even asked people who came and visit the artwork, leave their mark by signing on the back door of his storehouse.
Children playing basketball
This is the second street mural painted by Louis Gan. It graces the wall of Kwong Wah Yit Poh warehouse along Chulia Street Ghaut. This mural was completed after his first mural, "Children on the swing". However, this mural was not as good as the first one he did. This is because haste and sloppiness are apparent in this piece of painting. The girl in this mural arts seems to be levitating and they boy is out of proportion.Â
EMMANUEL JARUS'S COLLECTION
06
Looking Up This mural is located on a facade of the 1st Avenue Mall in Magazine road. The mural was about 15.24m high and 7.62m wide. The mural depicts a woman, Caryn Koh who is a trained medical doctor-turned-artist. She was first introduced to Jarus through Penangbased art coordinator, Tan Chor Whye, when they were down to Kuala Lumpur to help a street art artist, Ernest Zacharevic on one of his mural he is working on. In this mural, it was actually a candid of Caryn Koh taken by Jarus when she was staring in amazement at the interior of a cave at Batu Caves, Selangor.
A boy eating Teochew Cendol This mural can be found on Lebuh Keng Kwee which is located directly on top of a cendol's store. This is also the second piece of Emmanuel Jarus's mural in Georgetown. He also revealed that the boy in the mural is named Anderson. He met him when he went for a trip to Georgetown. He also said that Anderson was the first person who brought him to the cendol store and he took a photograph of Anderson having a bowl of cendol. Then, Jarus was asked to paint a mural with around 10m in height and around 6m in width, depicted a boy who grows up in Penang. Then, he decided to draw Anderson, depicted to be enjoying a bowl of cendol in his hands, making the mural fir perfectly to the location, where local and foreign visitors throng for the famous dessert in Penang.
Conclusion In conclusion, all the murals had brought a very big impact on Georgetown, Penang. It has become a trend to local and also foreign visitors for the past few years and still going on. Murals were painted on certain area and location due to the story behind it. It helps the local residents to remember the past and the murals are a part of their memories. Furthermore, murals also make Penang Island more alive and living.
REFERENCES Winnie Yeoh (2013). [online]. Available at:https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2013/11/24/artist-captures-amoment-in-painting-couple-tells-story-behind-zacharevics-famous-mural-onarmenian/ [Accessed on 7th October 2018] Timothy Tye (2012). [online]. Available at:https://www.penang-traveltips.com/boy-on-a-bike-mural.htm [Accessed on 7th October 2018] Predeep Nambiar (2016). [online]. Available at: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2016/11/23/girl-inpenang-mural-stunned-at-how-big-she-is/ [Accessed on: 7th October 2018] Perspective of Penang (2016). [online]. Available at:https://travel2penang.org/2016/12/24/penang-street-art-looking-up-by-j arus/ [Accessed on 7th October 2018]
⚠ THE PICTURES ARE ALL ENTIRELY TAKEN BY ME. THOSE REFERENCES LINKS WERE USED AS RESEARCH TO PINPOINT THE LOCATION AND GET MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THE PLACE OF THOSE MURAL PAINTINGS.
| Chan Chia Wei | | 0333764 | |FIA SEMESTER 2 AUG 2018 |