Five years on since the tragic Tsunami hit Asia including Bolehland and victims continue to remember loved ones lives lost as well as struggling to rebuilt their lives and livelihood.
And with many tragedies, memorials are erected to remember the incident with hope the there won't be another repeat in the future.
Bandar Acheh the worst affected in SEA built a memorial and museum, a unique memorial and provide an atmosphere of serene, quite and calm providing a peaceful ambiance for the visitor to be immersed in their own thought, offer a prayer and reflection upon the power of mother nature and the human spirit to rebuild their lives
Acheh Memorial
In BolehLand, a Tsunami Memorial in Kota Kuala Muda was also erected by the State government. Called bot bertindih (piled-up boats) it consist of a deck of boats stacked up located next to a memorial exhibition area.And with many tragedies, memorials are erected to remember the incident with hope the there won't be another repeat in the future.
Bandar Acheh the worst affected in SEA built a memorial and museum, a unique memorial and provide an atmosphere of serene, quite and calm providing a peaceful ambiance for the visitor to be immersed in their own thought, offer a prayer and reflection upon the power of mother nature and the human spirit to rebuild their lives
Acheh Memorial
The memorial has earned both praise as well as brickbats. See attached news
Star, Dec 25, 2009
Not to sound unpatriotic, it's better for readers to see what it looks like below:
Tsunami memorial
Sailing into controversy?
Remember learning fine arts in the university days that art can tell a story better than a picture painting a thousand words.
Ok considering that councillors are no artists or have any sense of art sense, like those in the capital city Kuala Lumpur where grotesque looking structures they call 'art' eg, the cement pitcher plant, it is not surprising that the tsunami 'sculpture' is being about controversy to both local and tourists.
So what it's a heap of sampans (boats) at least its a memorial right? If the sampans are to reflect the livelihood of the area, then a suitable memorial for Kuala Lumpur perennial flood (even with the billions spent on stormwater management) must be a heap of rubbish plus a few unidentified death bodies. Or pile of rubbles including the logo of the Works Ministry should do fine for a Bukit Antarabangsa memorial right?
The difference between the pile of boats and the pile of rubbish memorial if one is built for Kuala Lumpur is the former is more colourful! But both looks like thrash nonetheless!
Sure, the heap of sampans it will attract the curious and tourists perhaps to admire the uniqueness of BolehLand art or to bring it back as a souvenir to show frens how tasteless and ugly it is as if there is a dread of local fine arts fellos.
The least the councillors could have done is to hold a competition among the art schools and to select one that best reflect the incident and dignified to respect the victims too! Perhaps they did, we are not told. But if they did, then it shows our local artists are anything but artistic.
Ok, considering art is a matter of taste, particularly 'abstract' art, the memorial must mean anything to anyone or nothing at all to everyone!
Looking at the monument, even a person of piety or a monk needs to call up his years of training to be inspired by it and put oneself in a state of reverence to offer prayers for the departed.
The monument at least to this yours truly is hardly visually pleasing and evoke emotions of turmoil, distress as well as bad taste actually.
Ok perhaps they want visitors to remember the chaos and turmoil when it first struck. But isn't a memorial suppose to give hope for the future than to be reminded of the horrors of the past.
If artform is the least of what building memorials is about but more on practicality and a constant rewinding of the tragedy, 'Ground Zero' in New York should have a sculpture of a plane diving plunging into a tower or the faces of those who did it right?
The Kota Kuala Muda Tsunami might as well add in death bodies and dead cows and dead chickens then if the artistic aspect is disregarded.
Is it that there is insufficient funds? Noone is asking for a memorial like the Acheh one. All the folks want is something that will bring them closure of the tragedy and hope for the future going forward.
Not a memorial that makes them feel uneasy and keep rocking their lives each time they look at it.
Decking the place with sampans is no art or a respectable memorial pehlease!
Ok as the art lecturer would challenge the class to come up with an alternative than to only be a critique, I took the liberty to propose a memorial - call it 'Rebirth' that depict the wreck of half a boat and a tree of life and birds to signify rebirth, reborn after the Tsunami tragedy.
Rebirth!- copyright mine!
Ok considering that councillors are no artists or have any sense of art sense, like those in the capital city Kuala Lumpur where grotesque looking structures they call 'art' eg, the cement pitcher plant, it is not surprising that the tsunami 'sculpture' is being about controversy to both local and tourists.
So what it's a heap of sampans (boats) at least its a memorial right? If the sampans are to reflect the livelihood of the area, then a suitable memorial for Kuala Lumpur perennial flood (even with the billions spent on stormwater management) must be a heap of rubbish plus a few unidentified death bodies. Or pile of rubbles including the logo of the Works Ministry should do fine for a Bukit Antarabangsa memorial right?
The difference between the pile of boats and the pile of rubbish memorial if one is built for Kuala Lumpur is the former is more colourful! But both looks like thrash nonetheless!
Sure, the heap of sampans it will attract the curious and tourists perhaps to admire the uniqueness of BolehLand art or to bring it back as a souvenir to show frens how tasteless and ugly it is as if there is a dread of local fine arts fellos.
The least the councillors could have done is to hold a competition among the art schools and to select one that best reflect the incident and dignified to respect the victims too! Perhaps they did, we are not told. But if they did, then it shows our local artists are anything but artistic.
Ok, considering art is a matter of taste, particularly 'abstract' art, the memorial must mean anything to anyone or nothing at all to everyone!
Looking at the monument, even a person of piety or a monk needs to call up his years of training to be inspired by it and put oneself in a state of reverence to offer prayers for the departed.
The monument at least to this yours truly is hardly visually pleasing and evoke emotions of turmoil, distress as well as bad taste actually.
Ok perhaps they want visitors to remember the chaos and turmoil when it first struck. But isn't a memorial suppose to give hope for the future than to be reminded of the horrors of the past.
If artform is the least of what building memorials is about but more on practicality and a constant rewinding of the tragedy, 'Ground Zero' in New York should have a sculpture of a plane diving plunging into a tower or the faces of those who did it right?
The Kota Kuala Muda Tsunami might as well add in death bodies and dead cows and dead chickens then if the artistic aspect is disregarded.
Is it that there is insufficient funds? Noone is asking for a memorial like the Acheh one. All the folks want is something that will bring them closure of the tragedy and hope for the future going forward.
Not a memorial that makes them feel uneasy and keep rocking their lives each time they look at it.
Decking the place with sampans is no art or a respectable memorial pehlease!
Ok as the art lecturer would challenge the class to come up with an alternative than to only be a critique, I took the liberty to propose a memorial - call it 'Rebirth' that depict the wreck of half a boat and a tree of life and birds to signify rebirth, reborn after the Tsunami tragedy.
Rebirth!- copyright mine!
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