ADVENTURES
Melaka City The Art Gallery
The Treasures on the Walls of Melaka
By Philemon Foo
I had not intended to go treasure hunting. Honestly, I had my camera in my hand, comfortable shoes on my feet, and a vague idea that I would wander along the Melaka River, take a few photographs and perhaps find something interesting to eat. That was the plan. Well, it lasted approximately seven minutes… then I saw what’s on the walls.
I stopped in the middle of the walkway and stared. There it was, painted across the side of a building; bright, and impossible to ignore. It wasn’t just decoration. It had character. It had attitude. It is art. It seemed to be telling me that I had been walking past Melaka without properly looking at it. I raised my camera… Click… I took another photograph… Click.
Then I looked around and that was my mistake. Because once you start looking at street art in Melaka, you discover that it seems to be everywhere. And suddenly I wasn’t walking anymore. I was hunting.
The Melaka River was my starting point. It was moving quietly beside me, almost lazily, as if it had seen all this before and was keeping its secrets to itself. I could imagine the centuries of activity that had taken place along this river… Boats, merchants, traders, people arriving from distant lands, goods being loaded and unloaded, a multitude of languages filling the air… The river had witnessed Melaka becoming one of Southeast Asia’s great trading centres. And now I was walking beside it with a camera, looking for painted clues.
Modern art, a blast of colours depicting what I see and feel as s city with many charaters, emotions, and personalities. It also gives a vibe of a modern playful place, perhaps a city of mazes, made to confuse, draw-up, and create a sense of wander in people who visit.
History has a funny way of changing jobs. The river had once carried commerce. Now it was carrying tourists. And along its banks, the walls were telling new stories.
I walked slowly. Then I saw another mural. “Got you.” I stopped, and I photographed it. I then stood there and take in whatever message, and stories, that came to me. Then I moved on. Another one appeared, then another.
After a while I forgot about eating. This was becoming ridiculous. Wonderful, but ridiculous. I soon developed a serious problem. I couldn’t look at a wall normally anymore. Now every wall was suspicious. “What is your story?” “What are you hiding?” Every surface might be hiding something. Every alley looked like it might contain a secret piece of art. I would walk past a building, take three steps, stop and turn around. Sometimes it was nothing. Sometimes it was a tiny detail in a mural. Sometimes it was something that made me pull out the camera immediately.
The treasure hunt was getting into my head… Into the streets around Jonker Walk I walked. The place was alive, but not as alive when it was night. People were walking. Coffee smells drifted through the streets. Shopfronts displayed everything of beauty; souvenirs, clothing, food stuffs, ice cream, etc.
Restaurants were tempting me with the sort of aromas that make sensible diets collapse without a fight. But I had forgotten about being hungry. I began wandering through the surrounding streets. And that was when Melaka started revealing another personality. I found murals tucked into corners. Paintings stretching across walls. Characters appearing to interact with doors and windows. Animals seemingly frozen halfway through an escape. Scenes that made me stop and wonder what the artist had been thinking.
A beautiful piece of art depicting Chinese culture and heritage; lion dance, and Chinese opera. The paint peeling off the art piece shows how nothing is perfect, and are subjected to the tides of time. Melaka is not just a city. It is a city rich in heritage and culture of a multitude of people from various places in the world. This is what makes Melaka special.
The more I explored, the more I realised that Melaka had two personalities. There was the Melaka everyone comes to see… The historic buildings, museums, churches, old shop-houses, beautiful and famous streets. And then there was the Melaka that revealed itself only when you wandered about with an eye for creativity.
This was the city of little discoveries. A painted wall, a forgotten lane, a colourful doorway, a tiny piece of artwork hidden where nobody seemed to be looking… That second Melaka fascinated me. It felt like I had discovered a secret passage inside a familiar building. The city suddenly seemed larger.
Another beautiful masterpiece of an Indian classical dancer. To me this piece depicts Indian heritage and culture; a culture rich in dance, rituals, and some of the most delicious foods that Malaysia is known for.
Perhaps I turned the wrong way, saw something someone drew and painted on a wall, and got carried-away. Perhaps, but I have always believed that getting slightly lost is one of the better ways to travel. In this case, I could hear my own footsteps, and for a moment, I felt as though I had stepped outside the tourist version of Melaka.
Treasures? I had found it. It was not on a checklist. Not because someone had told me to go there. I had simply followed my curiosity. The walls began to tell stories and as I continued listening to the stories through my eye, if that makes sense, something else occurred to me. Street art isn’t just about making an ugly wall look pretty. It tells stories. Some murals celebrate local culture. Some play with humour. Some feature nature. Some depict people. Some create optical illusions. It is magical when one sees a city turn into a gallery.
This masterpiece depicts Malay heritage and culture, a rich culture steeped in traditions from various parts of Nusantara (our archipelago). To me this art highlights many motifs derived from nature such as the various flowers. Batik for example, is a beautiful art form that depicts flowers, plants, animals, and various structures as batik art takes on a more modern persona.
This masterpiece depicts the heritage of Melaka, the Baba Nyonya, and Peranakan heritage. This is what makes the Strait Settlements such wonderful places to visit. The history they have is so rich and unique to these places.
There is one important detail nobody tells you about treasure hunting such treasures of art in Melaka. So, let me do so. The treasure hunt is hot. Very hot in fact. The Malaysian does make its presence known. My shirt was no longer behaving professionally. My hair had given up, and a cap suited someone the glare of the sun. My feet were beginning to question my life choices. But the scenes were just brilliant.
So, when you visit Melaka, and should you like art… A treasure hunt awaits you. You may leave your friends behind, and go on your own journey. It will be worth your effort, energy, and space in your SD card, or mobile phone.
Additional Information
If you are wondering where to start your journey of enjoying the wall art, you can start anywhere along the Melaka River. But if you prefer a starting point, perhaps start at Backyard Rio Melaka, or Kampung Jawa Bridge (Jambatan Kampung Jawa).
Google Maps to Backyard Rio Melaka.
