GEORGE TOWN, Oct 19 — What happens when you pair traditional trades with contemporary art?
It can result in the birth of a paper shop house made to resemble a heritage shophouse in George Town.
Or the creation of lamp shades made using a mix of macrame and rattan weaving techniques.
Or Arabic calligraphy that closely resembles Chinese calligraphy carved into wood.
These and several more projects are part of UX: Artisan Project under this year’s Urban Xchange Festival.
Other than public murals, this time around the international art festival promises something different with a focus on six chosen traditional trades.
According to festival curator Gabija Grusaite, the idea behind the artisans project is to change the way people see traditional crafts as being irrelevant to contemporary life.
“We also hope to inspire local artists and designers to explore the crafts that local culture has to offer,” she said.
Six contemporary artists and designers were paired with six traditional artisans to create unique art products using a combination of artistic and traditional skills.
A film-making and photography team, Ownly Penang, was paired with a traditional paper effigy maker.
The paper effigy maker designed a paper pre-war heritage shophouse, almost to scale. This is where Ownly Penang comes in to let visitors who enter the paper house be led on a virtual tour of the streets of modern Penang using 3D-filming and a pair of ocular goggles.
Jewellery maker and interior designer, Jamie Oon Muxian, was paired with a rattan weaver and she blended her newly learnt rattan weaving skills with traditional African weaving technique, macrame, to design a new range of lamp shades.
The art of calligraphy is the flow of fonts in any language so illustrator Ammar Khalifa experimented with combining traditional Chinese characters with Arabic calligraphy to create a unique font type.
He was partnered with traditional signboard carver, Lee Chee Cheng, so they both worked together to carve out Ammar’s unique Arabic calligraphy on wood.
What if the traditional kolam is of a modern, geometric design on a mandala?
Graphic designer Falah Naim partnered with a traditional kolam maker and they came up with a unique kolam design that will be ready for the opening of the festival.
Traditional anchor makers are dying out and Teoh Huah Guan is one of the last two anchor makers left in Penang. Teoh was paired with modern sculptor Low Chee Peng.
A third generation anchor maker, Teoh shared his traditional anchor making skills with Low. The skills have been passed on for generations where iron is heated in a furnace before it is manually bent to form anchors.
Finally, contemporary artist Annabelle Ng, known for her abstract and dreamy masterpieces, used the traditional craft of batik making to design a contemporary batik series for her clothing line.
Urban Xchange opens with UX: Artisan Project on October 31 at Hin Bus Depot. The Artisan Project is supported by Think City.
Find out more about UX activities and workshops at www.urbanxchange2015.com.
