It was a wonderful coincidence that on the Sunday I was in Penang to mark the Ching Ming (All Soul’s Day) festival, it happened to be the night for “Whispers of George Town Festival”.
It was a sneak preview for media as well as the local artist community to get an idea of what’s in store for the seventh edition of this annual festival (July 29-August 28), that is gaining quite an international reputation abroad with New York Times declaring it as “making a name as major Asian arts event”.
It was an eclectic gathering of the individuals who’ve all helped to make the festival the success it has become and it reminded me once again of how global this little island is – and how if you open your doors and minds to diversity, and let things happen organically without too much government heavy-handedness, magic can happen.
In the crowd at Hin Bus Depot, one of the latest art spaces to open up, were Penang-born artists, were photographer Howard Tan who runs his own Studio Howard, glass artist Fuan Wong who runs his own gallery and has created Art and Garden, fusing his creations with nature, in Balik Pulau, and Goh Hun Meng, a design director now running his own shiop, OttoKedai. His name card says, born in Georgetown, inspired by Georgetown.
I got to meet Chng Kiah Kiean, whose architectural sketches of Penang (above) have given him quite a reputation. Chng studied architecture in the local university, worked for two years and then gave it up to pursue his love of sketching. He runs the local chapter of Urban Sketchers, a global community of folks who love to sketch on location.
Me & Kiah Kiean: “Work hard, work smart and get connected.”
Getting connected with Urban Sketchers opened up his world and changed his life. He now travels to conduct sketching workshops run by the NGO. “Work hard, work smart and get connected,” was what he said to me when I asked him how he had managed to carve a fulltime career out of sketching.
After 20 years of architectural sketches, Chng now feels he’s ready to try something else and next month will stage his own exhibition at Hin Bus Depot.
There’s the quiet and unassuming Tan See Toh whose family owns the Hin Bus Depot, a former major bus interchange, and he opened it up to the artist community to hold exhibitions, gatherings and create their works.
There were artists from outside Penang – festival curator Joe Sidek himself is from Johore – who have made Penang their home and found the right environment to create their works for the island.
Julia creating her old Indian woman mural (Credit: Julia Volchkova)
And there were plenty of artists from outside Malaysia. Russian artist Julia Volchkova is the latest sensation to sweep Penang with her wall art creations, the popular Indian Boatman and Little Boy murals – her works can also be seen in the more far-flung reaches of the island in Balik Pulau. (Location of her works here)
Hailing from Siberia, you can understand the charm the island has for an artist who’s been painting since she was six years old. Julia says she loves the small roads and streets of Penang and “I’m also amazed by the multiracial community here who live side by side in harmony”.
In talking about the festival, Joe Sidek took his time introducing the artists one by one and in so doing, gave me an impression of how spontaneity and randomness, coupled with passion and generosity, came together to create the festival.
He spoke of a time when someone needed two Western male models for their work and he came across two English backpackers walking by while he was driving past them. He stopped, asked them what they were doing and if they wanted to model and a few years later, the two boys are still in Penang – one is an artist and the other works in a restaurant. (This is a blog written by one of them, James Springer, about the changes he’s seen in George Town)
Can you imagine this happening anywhere else?
As Sidek said at the preview, “The arts should be supported by the community, we can’t rely on governments or corporations.”
While the George Town Festival was created by a state government mandate to mark the city’s listing as a Unesco World Heritage Site, what happened after that has been creativity and ingenuity, borne out of neccessity.
When you only have one performance hall, what do you do? Turn the whole city into your blank canvas, so artists were let loose onto streets and buildings, starting a trend that’s swept the world.
When you only have a population of 700,000, what do you do? Open your doors to global talent – artists desperate to express themselves freely without mandate or quest for money.
When you don’t have big budgets like your neighbours’ and no formal Arts Councils or statutory organisations with policies and guidelines, you get a certain freedom that is precious in creating and nurturing an event that’s made for people who care for people who care.
The numbers are looking good for the Festival, with numbers exceeding 250,000 visitors, with an increasing number coming from overseas. I heard it turned profitable last year, after six years. They are now able to pull in international acts and Singapore artists are also being commissioned to produce plays.
This year’s line-up has highlights like Triptyque (above), a Canadian act that blends circus and dance, and making their Asian premiere; Smashed (South-east Asian premiere), a British juggling act with a difference (video here); Strandbeest (again South-east Asian premiere) by Dutch artist Theo Jansen (video here); and Good Morning Digital, created by South Korean artist Lee Lee Nam, who makes water-ink paintings come to life.
At the end of the evening, Sidek said, “We took art to the walls and streets, for the next phase, all I can say is, watch this space.”
Indeed we will. My wish is as the festival grows, it never loses sight of the individuals and community that gave birth to it and helped reimagine Penang as a destination shaped by arts, creativity and heritage.
Joe Sidek (right) and his team: “Watch this space”