Kuala Kubu Baharu

Street Art

Seeing wall paintings in public places, straight away, I recall the days of the 1960s when I was in Europe. More obvious in the 1970's - graffitist along the streets corners and back lane. These uncoordinated paintings really mess up the beauty of the cities and giving it a poor image. That was so fast 60 ago.

 The first time news of the newly found words "street art" arose in Malaysia in 2009.when the first piece in Georgetown Penang was commissioned and approved by the city. Well good to know that they are trying to beautify the old city

Now 10 years later, I just did a page on "street art" in Kampar and then another page for those Street paintings in Penang. Unknowingly this is the third page for the murals that I have taken pictures of in Kuala kubu Baharu.

 it is difficult to put a date or period where practice of allowing artist to express their skills and sentiment in public becoming a common practice. This form of we expression and acceptance have grown. The method have evolved with the coming of the 20th century and the fad that has also gone world wide. Today artists were given opportunity, encouraged or even paid to have their talent displayed.

 To me I am happy and agreeable for such exhibits in street corners and vacant walls, if they could get it re-done once fading set in. But now Kuala kubu Baharu is the 3rd town I have visited.

 Why the back alley? No answer yet perhaps you can enlighten me 

# 1. KKB Town Signage

This town is very conscious of keeping itself up to date and following trend

#2. KKB Town more signage

So far had patronized the place once. We only seek very basic food so not fair to evaluate

#3. KKB Town signage the 3rd one

Left side while going out

#4.  Are the Street Art found here? I think not!

Clean and vacated back lane

#5. Some one trying to ape the street art concept

This is seen as an independent piece in other part of town

 #6. Graffiti?

I thought their era of Graffiti gone!. Anyway this one was not seen in the back lane where the street art currently but some other part of town

 #7. Entrance & Welcome sign

We found it! The back lane with street art. Thank You but it such a desserted place right now

#9

 #8. That's a Goshawk!

In real life situation, we do not pay much attention to this species, as there are more exotic cousins around

 # 9. Herons in the Mountain?

Yeah! you mean - the Egrets seen along the Sungei Selangor and those abandoned mining ponds

#10.  Wall decor

Must learn to appreciate this one

 # 11. MTB - mountain bike riding

Not much is known about "off road riding" in KKB vicinity. There more road bikes seen.

# 12. Mountain Hiking

Wondering what kind of nest with eggs and the significance of bird nesting [sacred] has to do with the whole scene

#13. Jungle trekking

Wonderful life around here with quite a few trails

# 14. Decor for the vacant wall

This patch more densely ornamented

#17

# 15. Decor for the vacant walls 3

Sparsely decorated

# 16. Pools at the Chiling Waterfalls

Sanctuay for the Mahseer Fishes

# 18. Bird watching

Yes birding along Frasers Hill Road, The whole stretch of roads and then climaxing at the Frasers Hills Resorts

# 19. Chiling Waterfalls

Horse playing @ picnic times

# 20. Flora in Frasers Hills

Sorry, not that much of wild flowers on this hilly road but perhaps those planted up in the Resort area. That should be the place with flowers

# 21. Pitcher plants on the hill Slope

Actually more along the Main Road to Frasers Hills.

# 22. White Water Rafting

Once a weekend sports on the Selangor River. Before the Dam was built

# 23. Chiling Waterfalls

River trekking to reach the Waterfalls

# 24. That mythical white Crocodile

In February 1883, Sir Cecil Ranking killed this crocodile on the bank of the Selangor River. That was the mythical guardian of the Selangor River. Its hilling led to the bursting of the dam and the end of Kuala Kubu.

# 25. Dulang Washing

Bringing back history when Kuala Kubu was a mining town. In the good old 1900's days

# 26. Looks like a Nuthatch to me

But never know of one having this colour combination

# 27 They also had included a couple of these statues

Good old drinking days?

# 28. Another one

I don't know!

# 29. Self defined Art

The Owners choice or allocated mosaic design?

# 30 Para-sailing

Never found out which part of KKB had this activity promoted

# 31. Entrance and Welcome sign

Yes had it recorded too,

# 32. So empty and without life - I added a model

Makes the place more human like

# 33. My model - Act 2

Giving some perpective as to the size of the back lane

# 34 Another one more town's signage in it's heart

They could come up all kinds of names just to create signs for the town

# 35. An ordinary home

Even private home along the road in town were encouraged to be kept tidy and if possibly has some decors

# 36. The looks of a main road

This is the 3rd and last road. Look at those classic designs

# 37. The 3rd and last Main Road

Lining the edge of town

# 38. Main road in Town

One of the 3 main roads. This one on the center.

# 39. One last look - into the lane

I ourposely mage this trip to do an assignment. The side with carpeted wall and no murals

# 40. Some one watching me?

The Rock Pigeon in town. This vacant lane os their playground

Upon doing research, I learnt that this could be the 3rd attempts of a having street art to beautify the town. I am trying to find out who did these last lot  painting and when? In our follow up visit in end June 2022, the place was closed again. More civil works to be added

Some background notes about street art in KKB - On the internet - ALFA - an art academy college stationed in Subang Jaya, highlight for mural paintings is Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) when 40 students was invited and invaded the town in Aug 2014 to add 8 wall paintings to their existing 4 pieces! Which 4 pieces?

The theme of the project was "A Taste of Life in Kuala Kubu Bharu". That was the theme, the students wanted to convey the lifestyle, culture and icons of KKB. The 8 murals painted by ALFA students are concentrated along the alleys of Jalan Dato Muda Jaafar. Now in years 2022, 8 years later a sample of the paintings looks like this. 4 more of of such mural could be barely recognizable. 

This is a community project endorsed by the Pejabat Belia & Sukan Daerah Hulu Selangor, with the support of The International Award for Young People and Anugerah Remaja Perdana Rakan Muda. Students from the Schools of Visual Communication, Interior Architecture and Architecture of ALFA College participated in the project. and Jalan Mat Kilau. To make historical vent more meaningful, I have downloaded and included one digital copy for comparison.

With  Will Would  Wander