Lukisan Mural Punca Armenian Street Hilang Seri? Pelukis Lahir Rasa Kecewa

Pada yang pernah berkunjung ke Pulau Pinang dan melalui 'Armenian Street' pastinya anda akan tertarik dengan pelbagai lukisan mural yang dihasilkan di situ.

Antara yang paling mencuri tumpuan di sana sudah tentunya lukisan memaparkan kanak-kanak berada di atas basikal.

Namun, baru-baru ini pelukis gambar mural Ernest Zacharevic meluahkan rasa kecewa apabila kawasan berkenaan tidak lagi seperti dahulu.

Luahan berkenaan dizahirkan menerusi sebuah posting di Instagramnya.

Menurut Ernest, mural yang dilukisnya itu sedikit sebanyak telah ‘mengganggu’ tempat tersebut yang dahulunya tenang.

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The fading kids on bike are still there, the people are still linning up for pictures, but today is not a regular day at Armenian Street. The steet has not been the same as it used to when I first moved there, quiet heritage street with few local residents offering antiques or 6RM haircut on a ground floor of their family home has been replace with souvenir shops, restaurants, and all kind of insta friendly quickly consumable concept stores to satisfy ever increasing traffic of holiday goers looking for 'authentic penang experiance'. One of those had been torn to ground this morning, just weeks since its grand opening. Not exactly sure of reasons but local goss says they had no proper building permits for such a construction and did not cooperate with council to address that. As much as I feel for the business owners who put their money and effort to open this shop I can't hide the joy of seeing council actually acting on its promises and enforcing the regulations that they established. It looks brutal but I don't think there is a polite way of demolishing a building. This part of Georgetown is a unesco haritage, and it has been threatened with the removal from unesco list due to failure to protect its culture, architecture and the community. Myself and many others blame my work for Armenian Street being a center of tourist route in Penang and honestly I've been contemplating of simply painting over it in hopes to put an end to that circus. But I think the time where it would make any difference has passed. You can barely see the artwork anymore but people are still lining up there. And if not kids on bicycle people will line up for something else. End of the day art does not issue construction permits, sell entire row of heritage houses to foreign investors, give out business licenses, docking permits to cruise boats or opens new flight routes. It's something to be strickly regulated especially in culturaly fragile places like Georgetown. We can only hope that what happen today will make business owners think twice before thay open another bubble tea shop or 3d art museum in this town. #penang #georgetown #gentrificationsucks

A post shared by Ernest Zacharevic (@ernestzacharevic) on Jul 2, 2019 at 12:38am PDT

"Jalan ini tidak sama ketika pertama kali saya berpindah ke sana. Jalan warisan yang tenang dengan penduduk setempat yang menawarkan barang antik atau kedai potong rambut hanya RM6 telah diganti dengan kedai cenderamata, restoran, dan semua jenis kafe hipster," katanya.

Menurut Ernest lagi, dia juga pernah mempertimbangkan untuk memadam lukisan tersebut dan mengakhiri kedatangan pelancong yang terlalu ramai di kawasan tersebut.

"Disebabkan kawasan tersebut menjadi terlalu terkenal, ianya sedikit sebanyak menjejaskan tujuan utama pelancong iaitu mendalami dan merasai pengalaman sebenar di Pulau Pinang," katanya.