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• SCULPTURE 16 : HIGH COUNTER

  ADDRESS : NO. 313 LEBUH CHULIA

  This cartoon plays on the high counter found in a traditional pawn shop. We can see, through a small window, that the broker is examining a ring with his magnifying glass. Today in Malaysia, while pawnbroking, or `pajak gadai’ is strictly regulated by government, it remains a traditional occupation, passed down from one generation to the next. Anything could be pawned during those years. Due to different demands back then, ways of handling this business was also different. During tougher times, people would send in anything pawnable to our shop. There was someone who even pawned his favourite sarong in order to by some durian. Today, pawnshops take only jewellery and branded watches, and no longer would accept things like antigues…’

  URL: SCULPTURE 16 HIGH COUNTER

• SCULPTURE 17 : GEDUNG RUMPIT

  ADDRESS : NO. 91 LEBUH CHINA

  In`Gedung Rumpit’ sculpture shows that a cow is trying to pole vault over a wall because the grass is – of course- always greener on the other side. The connection between a cow and Lebuh Queen, or Queen Street may appear somewhat tenuous. However, the Malay name for this street, `Gedung Rumpit’ translates as `grass godown’ and it is believed that in former times the street was lined with sheds used to store the hay for feeding livestock, such as bullocks.

  URL: SCULPTURE 17 GEDUNG RUMPIT

• SCULPTURE 18 : WRONG TREE

  ADDRESS : KEDAI TUAK LORONG PASAR

  Toddy or tuak was a popular alcoholic drink amongst Indian labourers, being prepared from the fermented sap of the flowers of the coconut palm. Here, the point of the joke is that the man climbing the tree will be disappointed for it is a pinang, or betel nut palm not a coconut.

  URL: SCULPTURE 18 WRONG TREE

• SCULPTURE 19 : UNTRAINED PARAKET

  ADDRESS : NO. 54 LEBUH CHINA

  Birds also feature in `Untrained Parakeet’. Indian fortune-tellers used caged green parakeets trained to select one from a series of twenty-seven divination cards to tell fortunes when their cage door was opened.

  URL: SCULPTURE 19 UNTRAINED PARAKET

• SCULPTURE 20 : NO MORE RED TAPE

  ADDRESS : NO. 10 JALAN BURMA

  The `Straits Settlements of Malacca, Singapore and Penang’ was created as an administrative unit by the Honourable East India Company in 1826. The rationale was to have string of bases along the Malacca Straits to protect the lucrative trade route of China, and combat local piracy. Penang was briefly the `capital’ of these Settlement, while the administration of the Settlements was direction from India. `Happy Hour’ sculpture is on Transfer Road, so named for the transfer of the administration of the Straits Settlements from India, to the Colonial Office in Singapore in 1867. This change in overseers resulted in a more efficient administration and an era increased prosperity for all the Settlement.

  URL: SCULPTURE 20 NO MORE RED TAPE

• SCULPTURE 21 : TING TING THONG

  ADDRESS : NO. 235 LEBUH CHULIA

  The principal subject of `Ting Ting Thong’ is an elderly but genial hawker preparing to hammer away at a slab of home made rock candy. In the background, there are several hawker selling traditional foods; nasi kandar hawker is – no doubt – describing how tasty are his dishes and the pau seller has a winning smile. See also one lady in a sarong with her tiffin carrier, tempted by rock candy while another housewife hurries home with her basket of purchases.

  URL: SCULPTURE 21 TING TING THONG

• SCULPTURE 22 : LABOURER TO TRADER

  ADDRESS : CHOWRASTA  MARKET

  Note the change of expression in the transition from convict to `trade’, in the sculpture, `Labourer to Trader’. For India’s colonial rulers in the nineteenth century, simply imprisoning someone was considered insufficient punishment, something with more `bite’ was called for. The thinking was, transportation – separating prisoners from their home culture and shipping them overseas-made their confinement more severe. Immediately after the founding of Penang, Francis Light requested Indian convict labour to help develop the colony, and by 1805 there were over 700 of these convict labourers in Penang, a number that doubled by 1824. Once here, these convict worked on major government buildings including Fort Cornwallis, and were also used in clearing swamps and forest. According to Governor Blundell of the Straits Settlements, these prisoners deserved credit for building the whole of the existing the roads throughout the island…. every bridge on both town and country, all the existing canals, sea walls, jetties, piers, etc’. Despite being prisoners, they were considered better workers than the regular or local work force. Many of these convicts were allowed to live relatively freely, not confined behind bars, and many were released well before the expiry of their sentences. By the 1860s `very few’ prisoners returned to their home in India, with the majority preferring to remain in Penang

  URL: SCULPTURE 22 LABOURER TO TRADER

• SCULPTURE 23 : KOPI ‘O’

  ADDRESS : NO. 443 JALAN PENANG

  One Tall, Double Shot, Decaf Espresso

  URL: SCULPTURE 23 KOPI ‘O’

• SCULPTURE 24 : RETAIL PARADISE

  ADDRESS : NO. 73, LEBUH CAMPBELL

  Penang today prides itself on being a shopping paradise, and aspects of this are featured in these two sculptures. `Retail Paradise’ is on Lebuh Campbell, popular shopping area.

  URL: SCULPTURE 24 RETAIL PARADISE

• SCULPTURE 25 : ROTI BENGGALI

  ADDRESS : NO. 58 LEBUH PASAR

  The subject of this design is the bread produced by a long established bakery at  Jalan Transfer. In this sculpture, we see the hawker cutting off the crust, or `unwanted skin’ from a loaf of bread, and incidentally threatening his customer`s safety. Roti Benggali is an unusual name for a loaf of white bread, but there is an interesting history to its origin. Originally, there was a British Malaya Bakery, but during the Second World War supplies of basics such as wheat flour became increasingly bakery disappeared at that time.

  URL: SCULPTURE 25 ROTI BENGGALI

• SCULPTURE 26 : MAIN STREET

  ADDRESS : NO. 71A JALAN MASJID KAPITAN KELING

  `Main Street’ bring together the figure of Francis Light, founder of the colony, and responsible for laying out the early street of George Town, with modern day backpacker. Light is shown bewigged, with a cravat and buckled shoes, while our young backpacker is also `correctly outfitted’ with rucksack and thongs, and a guide book in hand. Also shown are the typical modes of transport from their respective times – a bullock cart and a bus.

  URL: SCULPTURE 26 MAIN STREET

• SCULPTURE 27 : SAME TASTE SAME LOOK

  ADDRESS : NO. 96 LEBUH CAMPBELL

  In the superbly politically incorrect `Same taste, same look’ sculpture we can notice there are two old men enjoying their morning plate of dim sum, a traditional Cantonese snack and meals, while insulting their server, who appears able to give as good as she receives.

  URL: SCULPTURE 27 SAME TASTE SAME LOOK

• SCULPTURE 28 : DUCK

  ADDRESS : NO. 68 LEBUH PANTAI

  Looking somewhat incongruous in a narrow alley in George Town’s business district, `Duck’ sculpture mark an area where formerly poultry was sold. It is a typical example of the final sculpture that explored the use of colour, as well as other materials beyond the initial black metal rods.

  URL: SCULPTURE 28 DUCK

• SCULPTURE 29 : 3 GENERATIONS

  ADDRESS : NO. 143 LEBUH KIMBERLY

  A plate of steaming noodles and a hawker`s stall might not be the easiest of subjects to capture in black metal rod, catches superbly the look of a recent convert to the joys of hawker food, and to char kway teow in particular, as he approaches a hawker stall. Finely observed detail in this piece include the flames under the work, a cabbage, bottles of sauce on the stall, and the infant mimicking his father`s actions by adding milk from his bottle to a second wok.

  URL: SCULPTURE 29: 3 GENERATIONS

• SCULPTURE 30 : ROPE STYLE

  ADDRESS : NO. 66, LEBUH KIMBERLY

  Rope walk was named after the rope-making activities the street.

  URL: SCULPTURE 30 ROPE STYLE