My Itchy Fingers

Arty Walls

Penang, in Malaysia, may be just a few hours’ flight from Singapore, but Itchyfingers have been struggling for the time to fly there…One of the main reasons to go there again, after two visits many years ago, is to find the street arts of Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic in Georgetown, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In conjunction with Penang’s Georgetown Festival 2012, the artist was commissioned to give the old walls within the capital a new lease of life. These artworks depicted people and their way of life, and many of these integrated very well with the character of the buildings and their walls.

So when Itchyfingers knew that the artist was coming to Singapore to leave more of his works on our walls, we couldn’t wait to see them! These were what we saw last late October…er, sorry for the delayed posting…Itchyfingers was simply too tight up with work last November and December…. 😦

The first one we hunted down were these horses at Everitt Road.. 😀

Two boys riding on horses…But I dun understand why were the boys
holding mop and paint brush…hahah…

But I do like the contrast of realistic painting and kiddie scribbling…

These are on a narrow road…

Look to your left and you would see these trio…

The Minions!!!! The artist sure did his homework and knew how much
the locals here adorn these little yellow guys! They were painted on
the concrete pieces that I do not know what are the names, but these
are usually erected at the entrance of narrow streets to stop cars from 
entering or illegally parking there….They look like burglars! Burglars
that stole your hearts! Hahahah! (PS. I later found out these are also
called “bollards”, the same name as those short, thick post on the deck
of a ship or on a wharf, to which a ship’s rope may be secured)

The artist cleverly made used of this particular piece which had a
corner broken off to show the brain inside the Minion! Their favourite
bananas were also painted on the extra bit of concrete at the base…

When we visited the site, these guys were partially blocked by the
wheeler bins….Luckily I saw photos of them before and suspected they
were nearby….

Over at Victoria Street, Itchyfingers had fun shopping!

Your eyes were doing no tricks! Two Itchyfingers!!!!

Human-trafficking! Wahahah!!!! The artist did a painting of a child
sitting in mid-air in another country which I couldn’t remember now, 
and placed a shopping trolley against the wall, creating the illusion
as if the child was sitting inside the trolley. So now he repeated the
success here, with the trolley sliced into two…Did this remind you
of the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 and his trolley? Hahaha

Exclamation!

The Fallen… :p

Look up and you will see the Climber… :p

Dun miss Mr Tip-toed…

“Knock your head! Peeping Tom!”

“Take this!”

Gosh! Whose smelly feet are these?!

The Girl with a young lion cub…This one is a huge one…

Having viewed these murals, in Itchyfingers‘ humble opinion, they seemed to be not as interesting as the ones in Penang. They don’t really show our way of life as much as those in our neighbouring country. One of the most controversial piece of work done in Johor Baru, Malaysia – home to Asia’s only Legoland theme park. The mural depicted two lego characters, with the lady carrying a Chanel bag walking around a corner towards a back lane and what lied ahead of her was a black-clad robber with knife. The artist was spot-on in highlighting the problem of crime in the town but the authority obviously didn’t share his sense of humour. A third lego policeman, waiting to arrest the crook with handcuffs, was later added on by some other artists, probably in an attempt to save the town’s image. A pity the mural was eventually whitewashed by officials before Itchyfingers could find time to visit it…

Although the murals in Singapore are not as thought-provoking, they are still worth a visit as they do add more life to the otherwise boring walls…Last October, Ernest Zacharevic’s mural of the two boys riding horses in Singapore was chosen as one of the Top 10 Most Popular Street Art Pieces in the world! And it was ranked second, after the Street Art master Banksy! That’s surely reason enough for a visit! 😀

Also see related posts:
> Chasing Art – Spain Trip #9
> Street Art or ‘Arrghhhh’…?
> A Narrow Escape