Pelukis ‘Kanak-Kanak Atas Basikal’ Pulau Pinang Luah Rasa Menyesal

TERKINI
July 05, 2019 - 10:56 AM


Pulau Pinang, untuk siapa yang belum tahu, merupakan Tapak Warisan Dunia UNESCO dan status ini diberikan atas sebab seni bina, penuh dengan adat budaya dan masyarakatnya. Tidak hairanlah jika ke sana, masih banyak bangunan-bangunan lama yang tidak dirobohkan dan masih ‘berjasa’ .

Salah satu tarikan di Pulau Pinang adalah Armenian Steet. Dengan adanya pelbagai lukisan mural, tidak hairan kenapa lokasi ini sering menjadi kunjungan pelancong. Baik untuk mengagumi karya-karya yang ada mahupun untuk ‘instagram feed’.

Kredit : ernestzacharevic
 

Salah satu karya yang terkenal dan menjadi perhatian semestinya daripada Ernest Zacharevic iaitu lukisan ‘Kanak-Kanak Atas Basikal’ yang sering sahaja muncul di dalam gambar-gambar pelancong yang ke Armenian Street.

Baru-baru ini, dalam satu posting di Instagram,Ernest telah meluahkan kekecewaan terhadap ekploitasi yang berlaku di kawasan Armenian Street dan ia ternyata ‘tak seperti dulu’.

Menurut Ernest lagi, walaupun kini jalan tersebut menjadi tumpuan pelancong dek kerana popularitinya, tetapi terdapat banyak pembangunan baharu yang berlaku disitu dan banyak kedai ‘hipster’ yang didirikan.

Kekesalan muncul kerana menurutnya, mural miliknya itu seakan-akan ‘menganggu’ tempat tersebut yang dahulunya tenang dan pernah berkira-kira untuk memadam semula muralnya dan menamatkan kedatangan pelancong yang terlalu ramai.

Tambah Ernest, disebabkan kawasan tersebut menjadi terlalu terkenal, pelancong-pelancong seakan-akan lupa tujuan sebenar mereka iaitu mendalami dan merasai pengalaman di Pulau Pinang yang sebenarnya mempunyai pelbagai lagi tarikan yang menarik untuk diterokai.

Pada Ernest, beliau mengharapkan supaya Armenian Street tidak diusik atau berkemungkinan hilang nilai budaya dan lebih teruk, status di UNESCO. Iya, jika hilang nilai budaya, tidak mustahil status Tapak Warisan Dunia juga akan terlucut.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The fading kids on bike are still there, the people are still linning up for pictures, but today is not a regular day at Armenian Street. The steet has not been the same as it used to when I first moved there, quiet heritage street with few local residents offering antiques or 6RM haircut on a ground floor of their family home has been replace with souvenir shops, restaurants, and all kind of insta friendly quickly consumable concept stores to satisfy ever increasing traffic of holiday goers looking for 'authentic penang experiance'. One of those had been torn to ground this morning, just weeks since its grand opening. Not exactly sure of reasons but local goss says they had no proper building permits for such a construction and did not cooperate with council to address that. As much as I feel for the business owners who put their money and effort to open this shop I can't hide the joy of seeing council actually acting on its promises and enforcing the regulations that they established. It looks brutal but I don't think there is a polite way of demolishing a building. This part of Georgetown is a unesco haritage, and it has been threatened with the removal from unesco list due to failure to protect its culture, architecture and the community. Myself and many others blame my work for Armenian Street being a center of tourist route in Penang and honestly I've been contemplating of simply painting over it in hopes to put an end to that circus. But I think the time where it would make any difference has passed. You can barely see the artwork anymore but people are still lining up there. And if not kids on bicycle people will line up for something else. End of the day art does not issue construction permits, sell entire row of heritage houses to foreign investors, give out business licenses, docking permits to cruise boats or opens new flight routes. It's something to be strickly regulated especially in culturaly fragile places like Georgetown. We can only hope that what happen today will make business owners think twice before thay open another bubble tea shop or 3d art museum in this town. #penang #georgetown #gentrificationsucks

A post shared by Ernest Zacharevic (@ernestzacharevic) on


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