The street art or wall paintings craze which was started on a grand scale in Penang by the famous Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic, has spread to other towns in Malaysia during the last 10 years or so. Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Kampar, Kuala Terengganu and a dozen other towns started to have their own wall paintings. Taiping too has its fair share of wall paintings. Interesting and unique as they may be, those in Taiping don't seem to be able to attract much attention, as their counterpart in the larger towns. Seldom do I see tourists posing for pictures in front of these wall paintings in Taiping. In fact, many locals do not even know the existence of some of these wall art. Perhaps it could be due to the lack of publicity in the mass media or perhaps they were done on walls which were off the tourist tracks.
The earliest street art that I noticed in Taiping was the very simple one done on the side wall of the building behind the famous Yut Sun Restaurant at the corner of Jalan Lim Tee Hooi and Jalan Taming Sari. It was the drawing of the famous Old Master Q or Loo Foo Chi. This character was created by Alfonso Wong in the 1960s in Hong Kong. The Taiping copy was done on the side wall and the artist adapted it well to the existing element found on the wall. Unfortunately, I have no idea who the artist was.
The next wall painting was done on the side wall of the Bee Poh Antique shop at the corner between Jalan Taming Sari and Jalan Ong Saik. It is a huge wall painting of a scene at the old Taiping Railway Station. Being located beside a busy street, it is not surprising that very few people were seen taking picture of this piece of street art. The drawing of the faces of the people in the painting has been re-done as the original piece had drawing of people with "ghostly" faces. Now things look better.
Then, there is another wall painting which depicts another scene from the past. This time it was a scene at the central Taiping Market. I have no idea which year that painting tries to portray but we can see that the place was quite busy with a bullock cart and a horse cart at the foreground. I guess we should view it just as a good piece of art rather than for its historical accuracy. This painting was done on the wall of the Municipal Gallery or Galeri Perbandaran Taiping, at Jalan Ong Saik. This is a part of the project carried out by the North Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA).
Later, the local Council, together with the art students from UiTM, a local university, did a number of wall paintings at various places in town. Again, they try to do works that show the character of the town. A group of them drew the picture of a large bowl of 'cendol' on the wall of a newspaper stall at the Taiping Hawker Centre which is located along Jalan Sultan Abdullah. "Cendol" is one of the famous desserts sold in Taiping.
Aother group of UiTM students decided to focus on a popular children's activity - playing with paper-fold aeroplane. This drawing can be viewed at the back wall of Shun Tak Taiping Association building, in an alley between Jalan Besar and Jalan Pasar.
Taiping being the first place in the country where the railway started, the UiTM artists just could resist not drawing something to record this. Thus, the painting of an old steam railway engine or locomotive can be seen at the corner of Jalan Lim Teong Chye and Jalan Berek.
If one walks along Jalan Manecksha, one cannot miss another beautiful painting of a postman in olden day uniform. It is another work of the UiTM.students. I must say that the details in the postcard was meticulously done.
It is good to see local university students contribute towards the beautification of small towns like Taiping through their artwork. A big group of students from USM was next to leave their masterpieces on the walls of Taiping. One group worked at a backlane along Jalan Boo Bee. What is interesting here is that, this group of artists talked to the residents along the back lane and look through their old photographs to see what life was like in the past, along this back lane. Then using their imagination from the photos and discussion, they translate that into paintings on the wall. They painted activities that were carried out,there, in the past.. Some of the activities are still being done at present and they even actually drew the picture of an old woman who spoke to them, next to her own house.
A second group of USM students did something more challenging. They painted a 3D-like pond with fish on a pavement behind the Arked MARA along Jalan Panggung Wayang. It was hard work because it rained heavily when they were half finished. Fortunately, they managed to get their work done after that. Unfortunately, some people just don't appreciate the work of others. Vandalism sets in just within a fortnight. White paint was used to deface parts of the drawing.
Notice the white paint used to deface parts of the painting. And the painting was just 2-week old.
The third group of USM art students painted a very large wall mural on the side of Kwantung Association building. History of Taiping is again highlighted in this artwork. It is about tin mining. All three popular forms of tin mining were shown in the drawing - dulang washing or panning, tin dredging, and hydraulic pump method.
Not to be left out, another university in Perak came and painted what was to be named as the longest wall art in Taiping. This was done on the wall of a fly-over or bridge over the railway lines at Jalan Assam Kumbang. It is on the way to the famous Antong Coffee factory. The students from UPSI took a few days to complete the painting which depicted famous landmarks in Taiping.
These are some of the more "accessible" street art found in Taiping. There are others such as those found at the Taiping Zoo area and also at abandoned buildings. Schools too have their wall paintings. As I have mentioned earlier, tourists don't seem to be attracted to these street art in Taiping. After all the effort put in by the artists, it would be a shame if they are not highlighted in some official tourist brochures. If the "children on the bicycle" can be iconic of Penang, why can't the "postman" be iconic of Taiping too? Could it be that the wall paintings in Taiping, which featured a lot on "history" is too serious and too dry for fun photography? I don't know.
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