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2017

Penang Street Art

A friend of mine introduced me to works by a Malay Chinese writer Huang Jin-Shu before my visit to Penang, and I decided to take his book Memorandum of the Nanyang People’s Republic with me to the trip. The book mainly talks about the Communist Party of Malaysia and brings out its concealed history, which I have never heard of before, thus I found this book very interesting to read.

There is a gallery named Run Amok at the Hin Bus Depot Art Center, in Penang. With the help of people who work at the gallery I found a wall to paint at the art center. I am not going to reveal who gallery curator is, but a few days ago he warned me that so-called museums in Penang are not worth visiting, unless you want to be a silly tourist.

When looking at the wall, I realized that I want to paint something related with Malaysia, and suddenly remembered Huang Jin-Shu’s collection of short stories. I am not that much familiar with the history of Malaysia’s Communist Party, but I am well aware of the “erased history,” which always gives me complex feelings. Creative freedom is limited in Malaysia and talking about the Communist Party is a taboo, therefore, I decided to portray people as animals. I replaced only a few parts and I did not show so clearly that “this represents that,” it is more about a feeling. I want to cherish the memory of the passing time and enthusiasm which is not accepted by the society, just like the history of the Communist Party that disappeared in Malaysian jungles, by painting on an old wall in Penang, talking about the Communist Party and creating murals.

來檳城前,朋友介紹一位馬來華裔作者叫黃錦樹,所以帶了一本他的小說上路;書名叫「南洋人民共和國備忘錄」,裡面以馬來西亞共產黨人為書寫主體,由於馬共歷史被刻意掩蓋,以致於前所未聞,讀來覺得有趣。檳城有個藝術園區叫 Hin Bus Depot Art Center ,裡面有間畫廊叫 Run Amok,在他們的介紹下,我在art center裡面找到一面牆,畫廊的curator是誰我就不說了,他前幾天告誡我;在檳城只要叫博物館的都可以不用進去了,除非你想當笨蛋觀光客。
面對園區的老牆,我想畫些跟馬來西亞有關的事,自然想到黃錦樹的小說集。馬共歷史的確離我遙遠,但"歷史被抹去"這件事離我很近,讓我有些複雜的感觸。馬來西亞的創作自由有限制,馬共當然是禁忌題材,所以我把人物換成動物,置換了些隱諭的東西,沒有那麼明確的"這個代表那個",有時候就是種感覺而已。透過檳城老牆、透過馬共、透過壁畫,我想緬懷人世間逝去的時光、和那些不被社會接受的熱情,就像消失在馬來西亞叢林裡的馬共歷史。

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