Art boom transforms sleepy Penang into burgeoning tourist hot spot

Street murals in George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have led to a tourism boom, while raising hopes that the city can continue to develop into a substantial regional art hub. A few dozen tourists crowd around the painting, their camera phones held aloft, while a tour guide explains the history of the work.
A car suddenly honks its horn, politely at first, but with growing impatience the second and third time as the group reluctantly separates so the vehicle can drive past.
This is not your typical gallery experience, but it is the kind of whimsical viewing that has transformed sleepy Penang into an unlikely art destination in South-East Asia.
The city's most popular street paintings - by far - remain the interactive and three-dimensional ones created by Lithuanian-born artist Ernest Zacharevic for the 2012 George Town Festival.
On any given day, hundreds of people can be seen with maps in hand seeking out the murals, many of which juxtapose a wall painting with a real-life object, such as a bicycle, motorcycle or wooden chair. Most people come to snap a photograph while playfully imitating the characters in the murals.
Art lovers from around the world now descend upon George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is known for its well-preserved colonial-era architecture and street-food culture.
Local galleries and curators say a more deeply rooted art scene is slowly taking hold in the city as a result of the art tourism boom. The In-Between Arts Festival, George Town's second major arts festival of the year, kicks off November 26.
"In a way, it's super interesting how you can completely change a city in just a few years where suddenly everyone is into art,"?said local curator Gabija Grusaite.
"Slowly, it's getting there,"?she added. In recent years, events like Urban Xchange have brought together international and local artists to promote Penang's fast-emerging creative scene.
Local gallery Hin Bus Depot has also expanded to include artist studios and more exhibition space.
The unexpected success of the city's street murals has also kick-started a conversation among local residents and artists about what art is supposed to be - with everyone from graffiti taggers to gallery operators voicing their opinions.
"Most new mural commissions only have a taste for photo realism," said a Malaysian street artist known as Bibichun. "Or they go for cuteness or comical visuals. Nobody here is really willing to accept abstract art or other types of art yet." To prove his point, Bibichun a few years ago spray-painted a rudimentary, cartoonish dinosaur behind one of Zacharevic's well-known images of a boy who appears to be sitting atop an actual motorcycle.
The dinosaur was swiftly criticized on social media, Bibichun said, before Zacherevic responded by painting a smiling, realistic-looking young boy holding a leash tied around the dinosaur's neck. Bibichun's dinosaur is now a rare example in George Town of graffiti being accepted as "art," but only because it was validated by Zacharevic's addition, he said.
Most graffiti in George Town is quickly removed by authorities since the heritage zone has strict rules governing what types of additions or changes to the cityscape are allowed. For his part, Zacharavic worries that an increase in regulations could stifle local artists' creative freedom.
"There is now so much control on both location and ideas, which risks suffocating creative expression in favour of restrictive commissions and design briefs fuelled by the commercial expectation of what street art 'should' look like,"?he said.
As available wall space shrinks, and as eager new artists continue to arrive in Penang, the cost of painting murals is also rising.
A mural can cost anywhere from 50 to 100 ringgit?(11 to 22 dollars) per square foot, depending on how detailed or colourful the building owner wants it to be.
"Most people can't pay for them anymore,"?said another local street artist known as Kangblabla.
Street art is ephemeral by nature, more difficult to preserve than indoor art given its exposure to the sun and rain - not to mention the many hands that touch it each day. Zacharevic's murals were originally intended to be allowed to fade with time until they disappeared.
But as their popularity grew, and more tourists began visiting George Town to see the paintings, local authorities and business owners realized they needed to act to preserve them.
"I always said I would never restore the murals. It's part of the charm of street art to watch a piece fade and change with the city,"Zacharevic said.
"However, four years of immense public appreciation convinced me otherwise,"?he added.
On Chew Jetty, Zacharevic's former painting of two children and a cat riding a boat holds a potential lesson: the mural has now faded away to nothing - just the brown wooding siding remains - and the tourist shops surrounding it are mostly empty.