Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GEORGE TOWN'S STREET ART
Officially sponsored street art is not common in Malaysia, but in George Town it has been embraced by the com-
munity and provides a quirky counterpoint to the city's urban beauty. Many sides of buildings in the heritage zone
are adorned with cartoon steel art pieces created by the
Sculpture At Work studio
(
http://sculptureatwork.com
).
These artworks detail local customs and heritage with humour.
For the 2012 George Town Festival imaginative murals were commissioned from the young Lithuanian artist
Ernest Zacharevic, who combines objects such as a bicycle (on Lebuh Armenian) and a chair (on Lebuh Pitt) with
his figurative paintings. The street art has been a smash hit with visitors constantly lining up to be photographed
beside the Lebuh Armenian piece in particular - when it was vandalised in August 2012, locals quickly cleaned it
up again.
Street art is, of course, not designed to last. So for the 2013 George Town Festival many other pieces of street
art and installations were created including the series
101 Lost Kittens
(
www.facebook.com/101lostkittens
)
and
the
Secret Gardens of Earthly Delights
, a series of pop-up landscaping projects. This evolution of George
Town's streets into an ever-changing gallery of free art and creativity is one of the most exciting developments in
the city.
Pick up a free map pinpointing the various art sites from George Town Festival's office at 90 Lebuh Armenian
and look at
www.penang-traveltips.com
(scroll down and click on George Town Street Art) for up-to-date details
of the various public artworks around town.
SRI MARIAMMAN TEMPLE
(Lebuh Pitt; 7am-7pm)
For local Tamils, this temple fulfils the purpose of a Chinese clan-
house; it's a reminder of the motherland and the community bonds forged within the dia-
spora. Sri Mariamman was built in 1883 and is George Town's oldest Hindu house of
worship. It is a typically South Indian temple, dominated by the
gopuram
(entrance
tower).
Penang's Thaipusam procession begins here, and in October a wooden chariot takes the
temple's deity for a spin around the neighbourhood during Vijayadasami festivities.
HINDU TEMPLE
MASJID KAPITAN KELING
(cnr Lebuh Buckingham & Lebuh Pitt; 7am-7pm)
Penang's first Indian Muslim settlers (East India
Company troops) built Masjid Kapitan Keling in 1801. The mosque's domes are yellow,
in a typically Indian-influenced Islamic style, and it has a single minaret. It looks sublime
at sunset. Mosque officials can grant permission to enter.
MOSQUE
