Walls that talk art

No longer regarded as illegal “eyesore”, graffiti art is gaining recognition as a legitimate artform, writes

IT was scorching hot in George Town, Penang. Sweat trickled down my back, soaking my shirt. The straw hat I was sporting didn’t seem to help much. I was in Penang a couple of years ago to experience the George Town Festival and happened to be walking down Ah Quee Street with my brother.

“Stop!” I recall my brother yelling, immediately stopping me in my tracks. He pointed to a wall and asked whether I wanted to have a picture taken in front of it.

Then I saw it — the famous “Boy on a Bike” mural, with a real old bike attached to rusty red wooden doors and a drawing of a boy wearing a helmet who appeared to be riding the bike. Of course I wanted a picture to be taken there.

There’s no way that visitors to George Town should leave without at least posing for posterity with some of the amazing street art that grace many of the once-grey walls in the town. Most of these works, I later discover, belong to Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic whose name is now synonymous with Penang.

Meanwhile, in the UK, an anonymous graffiti artist who goes by the name of Banksy has been marking his territory on streets, walls and bridges of cities throughout the world. As of 2014, Banksy’s been regarded as a British cultural icon and

‘Boy on a Bike’ by Ernest Zacharevic in Penang.

Acit’s ‘Bangau’ masterpiece in Hong Kong.

has even had his work shown in galleries such as Sotheby’s in London.

But what about closer to home? Do we have our own Malaysian cultural icon when it comes to street art? Well, Abdul Rashid Abdul Raman, or Acit as he’s fondly known, has been dabbling in graffiti since 2007. The artist has his own distinctive style and loves

Acit painting the ‘bangau’.

to incorporate Malay cultural elements into his art, such as batik.

ACIT’S STORY

Not long ago, street art was regarded as a form of vandalism in this country. And this was the very reason why Acit would indulge in it discreetly, usually at night after work. When he was working with Central Market, he used to go down the Klang River to paint the walls there.

“I was so nervous. I’d look left and right and was always scared of getting caught,” recalls Acit when we meet at The Curve in Petaling Jaya.

Taking me back to his early days, this Penangite shares that he’d always had a passion for art, even from a young age. His canvas back then was the ground in the compound of his house in Balik Pulau. His tools? His fingers. He later studied Multimedia at Mara PolyTech in Ipoh, Perak, and went on to work with Central Market before being employed by an animation company, Les’ Copaque.

He befriended some graffiti artists who influenced him to try his art skills on a wall instead of the computer. And it wasn’t long after that he really started to grow fond of this rather unconventional form of art. “I like the fact that I can use my whole body to paint instead of sitting at the desk and just moving the mouse,” confides Acit, before sharing that he quit his design job in 2014 to pursue graffiti full-time.

His first body of “work” in this area featured predominantly letters before he graduated to abstracts. “My signature is batik. But I also like to use all the elements

(insert any name)

When I was a kid, I’d sing this song and use my sister’s name. The praying mantis would then move and I’d believe that that’s how my sister positions herself when she sleeps. “People prefer something that they can understand,” adds Acit, smiling at my comprehension.

MAGICAL MILESTONE

Suffice to say, this affable street artist has come far. In fact, Acit flew to the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan last year with seven other Malaysian artists to paint 24 walls in the ultra-modern city of Dubai.

Recalls Acit: “Dubai doesn’t have local artists. My Malaysian artist friend happens to work there so when his company received this project, he called us.”

A developer there was hoping to revive an old shopping area in the city by showcasing some features of Dubai’s culture. So Acit took the opportunity to draw knitting yarns, as textile is one of Dubai’s earliest and oldest trades. “It took us more than a month to finish the project. We even celebrated Raya over there,” he shares, chuckling.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Acit was the sole representative from Malaysia out of the 38 artists who participated in the HKWALLS graffiti event. The Malaysian was given the freedom to choose his subject and he opted to paint the (egret), something that many Malaysians can relate to through the folk song, The egret also happens to be a symbol of eternity in Chinese mythology.

ACCEPTED ART FORM

“There’s been such a proliferation of mass media coverage on this (matter), which in turn has led to so much public curiosity