Malaysian artist shocked public ‘injured’ her tiger sculptures in Chinatown

Alice Chang's 'injured' tigers have now been bandaged and a natural barricade has been placed around the tiger family. Photo: Kwai Chai Hong

The Malayan Tiger Family sculptures by Alice Chang, featuring a pair of parent tigers looking after their cub, were intended to highlight the importance of saving the Malayan tiger.

But the message seems to have fallen on deaf ears with repeated damage caused by visitors to the tiger family installation at Kwai Chai Hong in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown. The installation was unveiled on Jan 13.

On three separate occasions since the launch, CCTV footage captured individuals attempting to climb on the sculptures and sit on them in order to "ride" the tigers. Those irresponsible actions caused cracks, chips and damage to the tiger sculptures, which are made from recycled broken tiles, plaster, metal mesh and metal frame.

Chang says she was “more shocked than angry” at the recent incident last weekend when she first found out.

"I was asking how did this happen and who would do such a thing?” says Chang.

But with the repeated "injuries" to the tigers, Chang reveals she felt a mixture of emotions - sad, disappointed, angry and then curious – as to why would people do this.

"The team from Kwai Chai Hong and I quickly met up to address this and I am glad we all decided to turn this lesson to educate the public instead.”

The tigers were bandaged to show the consequences of the public’s irresponsible act. Also, a guard was stationed nearby to deter future incidents, and a "natural barricade" made up of rocks, stones, fallen tree trunks, and branches was added to the sculpture's perimeter recently. Additional signage had also been placed at the installation site.

“With this injury, we realised that it is not a matter of just fixing the problem and moving on. It is a lack of education and exposure to public art.

“Letting people see an “injured” tiger sculpture with a bandage will trigger a stronger reaction. It is no longer pristine or perfect looking now because of irresponsible human actions.

“Visuals like this are more impactful. This, I hope, will get people to think before they act around art pieces,” offers Chang.

“The task was upon us to convert this negative experience to something impactful – educating people how to respect public art. In fact, we chose to call this an ‘injury’ in order to emphasise how human’s irresponsible actions can deeply impact a non-living piece of art, let alone our Malayan tigers,” says Zeen Chang, managing partner of Bai Chuan Management.

All the proceeds from the sale of the Malayan Tiger Family sculptures will be donated to WWF-Malaysia's tiger conservation efforts.

The Live Wild And Prosper art installation is open to the public until Feb 20, from 9am to 10pm daily. Free admission.

Respect for public art continues to be a broader issue in Malaysia, involving better education and awareness towards art.

In August 2019, the Bakat Muda Sezaman (Young Contemporaries) exhibition at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur made the wrong headlines when it saw several artworks from local artists such as Mesita Jee Mei-Jane, Samsudin Wahab, Ho Mei Kei, Haffendi Anuar and Muhamad Nizar Sulaiman damaged by visitors to the gallery.

At that National Art Gallery exhibition, members of the public stepped on Mesita's installation work and broke the mirror, people sat on Haffendi's sculptures, Muhamad's installation featuring a cluster of stand fans were moved about to fit the perfect Instagram shot and Samsudin's rustic installation saw people trying to climb the ladder featured in the award-winning piece.