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Penang-based photographer Ismail Hashim has created some of the most memorable images in Malaysian art. This essay takes an in-depth look at his work.

Penang-based photographer Ismail Hashim has created some of the most memorable images in Malaysian art. This essay takes an in-depth look at his work.

2011 Rimbun Dahan residencies at Hotel Penaga in Georgetown, Penang. Artists from Malaysia, South East Asia and Australia are invited to apply! Applications accepted all year round.

Being an old cosmopolitan centre, Penang has its fair share of successful artists, and more. But, despite its strong pulse, the future of its art is not certain.

by Perforashyun Peh

Cycling as time travel. Our contributor looks back at another place, at another time.

by ARTERI

Penang Apprenticeship Programme for Artisans (PHT-PAPA) is still looking for apprentices for the traditional trades. The programme duration is 6 months to one year and allowance will be given during the apprenticeship.

by SHARON CHIN

When I was in Penang last year, I stumbled across the Toy Museum along Tanjung Bungah Road. My first reaction was: whoaaaaa. It remains one of the strangest, most fascinating places I’ve ever been in.

The Museum itself is a shop lot of about 650 sq ft, located beside Copthorne Orchid Hotel. It feels suspiciously like an old night club with a bad ‘Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt’ theme: gilt fibreglass statues and fake hieroglyphs abound. Inside, rows and rows of shelves house over 100,000 figurines, collectibles, models and toys from a mind-boggling span of western popular culture. It was like walking into a dragon’s hoard, only instead of gold, this dragon preferred toys.