The art KL celebrates – and the art it paints over

KUALA LUMPUR: To visitors seeing Kuala Lumpur for the first time, the city can seem to have two street art worlds. There is art – and, a few streets way, there is vandalism.

Same paint, same walls, yet one is celebrated while the other gets painted over.

Twenty years ago, street art here was simply illegal. Then in 2010, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) shifted towards urban beautification, allowing artists the freedom to paint over walls.

Today, those murals have become a draw for tourists and locals alike.

One artist who has lived on both sides of that line is Loo Lok Chern. Better known as Cloakwork, he discovered graffiti as a college student along the River of Life near Central Market.

“I always took the train to college and I was looking for something exciting and fun to do,” he recalled. “I passed by all these walls filled with graffiti, and that’s where I tried creating my first piece. After that, I became addicted to it.”

He has spent the past 15 years pursuing graffiti as a hobby and through commissioned projects.

Last year, Cloakwork’s murals on several old-style KL bus stops were painted over in grey by DBKL. The removals made headlines and sparked public debate.

DBKL said any mural in a public space must first obtain official approval, and clarified that the cleanup was part of a wider project ahead of Malaysia’s Asean chairmanship.

On his part, Cloakwork is resigned. “The moment I do graffiti, I have to accept the mindset that nothing lasts forever. It belongs to the public and the open space,” he said.

But he didn’t take the removals quietly. In an Instagram post, he pointed out that many of the old-style bus stops, with their attached mini shops, were originally built by the government to support underprivileged vendors selling small goods to passengers and taxi drivers.

Only a handful survive across the city, most in poor condition.

“Why not use my skills to give them a fresh, vibrant makeover and brighten up the area?” he wrote. “Instead of spending taxpayers’ money to cover my harmless art, why not try to fix the potholes on the road?”

One of the murals lasted just six months before it was removed.

“I was quite sad, to be honest, because it’s one of my most beautiful pieces,” he told FMT Lifestyle. “But as long as I can still breathe, I can always create another piece.”

Before he paints, Cloakwork studies the space and creates colourful, comical characters that bring a positive vibe to the wall.

“This city is filled with monetised advertisements,” he said. “I hope I can paint something outside of that context to cheer people up and add something more relaxed to their daily lives.”

These days, commissioned street art has its own map in KL. Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang was among the first streets transformed through a municipal revitalisation programme using art, while Kwai Chai Hong near Petaling Street features scenes of everyday life in the 1960s painted across old shophouse walls.

Cloakwork, meanwhile, has also worked on commissioned projects in KL for several brands.

“I think the city commissioning artists to do murals is a good initiative,” he said. “However, I think artistic freedom still needs to be respected.”

He believes many commissioned works fall flat – not because of a lack of artistic skill, but because of limited creative freedom.

“I always see many Twin Towers and hibiscus murals – the theme is always the same. I feel it should be more open towards fresh ideas. If I were a tourist, I couldl walk to see the Twin Towers myself. Why wouldl I want to see it on a mural?”

As for where the line sits between art and vandalism, he doesn’t hesitate.

“Street art is more thoughtful in the process – what subject to paint, what message you want to bring, what colour you’re putting on your mural.

“The mindset behind vandalism is about destroying. That’s the difference.”

Today, street art has spread far beyond Kuala Lumpur, turning walls in George Town, Ipoh, Melaka and Johor Bahru into open-air galleries that attract visitors in their own right.

But the question remains: who gets to decide where the line is?

Naimul Islam is an undergraduate at the Queen Mary University of London and an intern at FMT.