Central Market Trip

This is my first time visiting Central Market Kuala Lumpur at Pasar Seni. I have to admit that I didn’t put much expectation on this trip since I heard from my friend that this a boring place which sells souvenirs to tourists. Well, I’ve changed my mind after I’ve gone deeper in this market.

Before sharing my experiences, I would like to give a brief introduction of Central Market Kuala Lumpur. Central Market Kuala Lumpur is located at Jalan Hang Kasturi, right opposite Pasar Seni LRT station and just a walking distance away from Petaling Street. What surprised me is this market is like 120 years old!  It was founded in 1888 and originally used as a wet market, while the current building was completed in 1937. It has since been classified as a Heritage Site by the Malaysian Heritage Society and now it is a landmark for Malaysian culture and heritage.

When I was walking in the market, I saw shops selling handicrafts and traditional clothes from multi-ethnicity. There is food court selling Malaysian local food as well. What surprised me is this is not a market selling souvenirs only but a place showing really traditional and local multi-cultural art crafts which even I am not familiar with as a Malaysian. Here are the pictures I took.

There is a busker who has got my attention. What of this street artist attracted me is his architectural drawing while the other buskers here are mainly doing portrait. So I took a step to have a conversation with him. He told me that he has been doing architectural drawing for around 30 years. He said that is his interest which he will never give up. Every day he will come out with at least one work piece. His passion on architectural drawing gains my admiration.

It was quite a good experience visiting Central Market Kuala Lumpur. I have seen not only a lot of art crafts of Malaysia here but also dreams and ambitions.

Pop Art

Art Movement

Art movement is described as a style, a tendency or a way of doing art which spans over a period of time, practiced by a group of artists. Art movement shares the same artistic style, ideals, timeframe and technical approach.  There are various art movements in the world that are distinctly or subtly different from each other. The artists associated with particular movement may cohere to specific guiding principles. Some art movements show similarities as they were influenced by another art movement whereas some have little in common with other movements. There is no fixed theory or rule determining what forms an art movement.

It is interesting to study the differences between art movements. The art movement which attracts me the most is Op Art.

Op Art, short for ‘Optical Art’, is a method of painting which concerns creating optical illusions based on effects of colors, shapes, lines or patterns. Op Artists play with the perception of the viewers by subverting the relationships between picture plane and dynamic colors, shifting tones and ambiguous shapes. It was popular in United States and Europe in 1960s and 1970s. It was greeted with a certain degree of skepticism by the critics. Op Art is also a form of Abstract Art and it is closely connected to the Kinetic and Constructivist Art movements.

I like Op Art because it gives me a feeling of magic. When we look at Op Art works, the images are definitely static and flat, but they generate an illusion of movement with conscious tricks that create unstable picture surfaces. They give us an impression of flashing, vibrating, swelling, warping or waving on the Op Art images. I still remember when I first saw an Op Art work, I was amazed and like “hey, the picture is moving!!” 

 

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           "Rings rotating"

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"There are waves!"

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"Wondering why you keep seeing black dots?"

One more art movement I like is Land Art, which we also call Earth Art. Land Art is an art movement with landscapes and art works are inextricably linked. I like Land Art because it is created in the nature. Land Art artists use natural materials such as rock, soil, water, leaves and so on to create art works.

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