PETALING JAYA, June 27 — The images are vivid in colour.
Some abstract while others feature nature and animals.
These are the paintings that make up the #Canvasli art auction by Project Hope at the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival in APW Bangsar.
The paintings come in pairs: one is done by a local artist and the other by a child from the Bateq Orang Asli community of Taman Negara Kuala Tahan, Pahang.
Project Hope is an organisation made up of a partnership between multiple non-governmental organisations that provide aid to the Bateq Orang Asli community and have used a rather colourful strategy this time around in their fundraising efforts — art.
The #Canvasli art auction, which began last week on June 22 and will end tomorrow (June 28) at 10 pm, aims to sell 30 paintings to support Project Hope’s efforts to provide the isolated Bateq community with amenities like boat fuel and school supplies.
In February, 30 artists travelled with Project Hope for a two-day camp trip to the Bateq village in Kuala Tahan to produce the unique “Canvas Asli” or #Canvasli acrylic based art collection.
At the camp, each artist was paired with a child from the indigenous Bateq community and the pairs were then given the task to create two artworks that complimented on two separate canvases, one by the child and the other by the artist.
Not an easy feat, especially when there is a big barrier when it comes to communicating, as many of the artists like Ahmad Hakym Ahmad Hilmy explained in short stories of their experiences working with the children in a post on Project Hope’s Facebook wall.
“This shy boy answered most of my questions only with his sweet smile, as he was not really comfortable speaking in other than the Bateq language,” wrote Ahmad, as other artists echoed his words.
“The child answered all my questions with ‘entah’ (I don’t know), it was hard for me to get information from him,” wrote another artist.
Although, as can be seen in the photos, the language barrier did not stop them from trying to create beautiful pieces of art.
The artists explained in their stories that they tried to inspire the kids with ideas of things that were familiar to them, like their everyday life back at the village, and they were pleasantly surprised by how quickly the kids picked up on their ideas.
“I knew I had to change my strategy, so I started to scribble some images and asked the child to respond through pencil and paper,” wrote Ahmad.
“To my surprise, he started to copy my drawings, through his understanding, his own style.”
While other artists, Haryth and Nur Amalia, said:
“I observed as he copied whatever I did, on his side of the paper. So I thought since he mirrored me, why don’t I make our paintings to be mirroring each other?” wrote Haryth.
“My kid, Caka, liked to catch birds at her village, so I tried to get her to draw birds, but she was too shy to show me her work, so I told her to just follow what I do,” wrote Nur.
“When we finished drawing I was stunned, her sketches were so clean, she’s a fast learner.”
You can bid for any of the 30 paintings on Project Hope’s Facebook page, with each bid starting at RM200, and all proceeds will be channelled back to the Bateq community in Kuala Tahan.
If you’re interested in purchasing these unique artworks, or you’re keen to help out in some other way, if art isn’t really your thing, surf over to Project Hope Facebook page.
