Female street artists in Malaysia use walls to challenge stereotypes and start a conversation about diversity and gender roles
- On the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian women are using public art to express their feelings about issues such as female empowerment
- They talk about reactions to their work, taking it to the next level, and the transience of outdoor art
When Yante Ismail was painting a mural on a concrete wall facing an alley in Bangsar, a trendy Kuala Lumpur suburb, she had many passers-by asking her about her view. Her piece, entitled Keep Your Laws Off My Body, depicted a defiant, curvy woman with flying, flaming red hair.
Taking art outdoors opens it up to public scrutiny, and Yante says she had to reassure curious onlookers that she was not promoting anarchy, but rejecting confined parameters and gender roles for women. “I don’t do art just for the sole purpose of provoking. I want to encourage thinking and discourse,” she says.
When some young men chided her for not making the woman in the painting thinner, however, she could not help but give them an earful.
Yante painted Keep Your Laws Off My Body on the Wall of Voice outside the 27Telawi art gallery in March. The wall is an initiative encouraging female artists to start conversations about the influences behind their work. The laws she refers to are man-made, and dictate how a woman should live, look, dress and act.