Beautiful Decay

BEAUTIFUL DECAY

by Buz Walker, Senior Design Lecturer, Raffles University, Iskandar

WHY DO I DRAW?

I draw because I enjoy it. Drawing can be tremendously satisfying to me – when I’m ‘on’, it is a kind of meditation to me, relaxing and enjoyable. Both the ‘act’ of doing the drawing, and looking at the end result give me much pleasure. As many ‘live sketch’ artists say: it’s about observation – drawing makes one study the subject closer, and you understand more about it.

These days, I do almost all my sketching ‘live’ on site. I find that the drawing subjects I’m most attracted to are subjects that “tell a story”. They are those objects and architecture from an earlier era that are now in decline and worn, with an intriguing tarnish caused by weathering and neglect. The broken & mouldy wooden window shutters on an old shophouse immediately attract the sketcher in me. Through my artist’s eyes, these buildings seem to become more beautiful with age and decay.

Johor Bahru and Penang (where I’ve also drawn many times) are both Malaysian cities full of “faded splendor”- classic structures from their rich history that still stand, but are endangered by encroaching ‘modern progress’. Through my drawings, I want to record these buildings before they are demolished and lost forever. Sometimes, when I’m drawing an old crumbling Johor mansion, I become so lost in thought, that I can almost ‘hear’ the tales from a time when the mansion was the centre of a Johor life. Now, the walls, mould-stained, scarred and broken, stare down at me, awaiting their last days before razing.

When I look back at my sketches of the past 20 years, since coming to SE Asia, I have profound memories about the subject or theme itself, as well as the situation, the surrounding ‘ambience’, and the emotions I felt as I did the drawing. The feelings I experienced at those moments are photographs I may have taken at that time. I arrived in Johor 30 years ago, to teach art & design at Raffles Iskandar University. In the first months here, I admittedly experienced a good deal of ‘culture shock’ – but, thru my sketching, I found inspiration in the old and classic architecture of Johor. I’ve done more than 140 sketches in Johor since I arrived in 2012; as of today, over 40 of those sites have since been dramatically altered or demolished.

AND WHAT OF JOHOR’S FUTURE?

Daily, Johor charges headlong toward becoming a ‘developed city’, with a vision toward a glittering future. But developers seem to be unmindful of the Johor historical architecture that is abandoned, crumbling or is carelessly being demolished. Some buildings have been renovated, but beyond any historical significance. Even the aesthetics of the Johor urban space are being tampered with – large, old canopy trees are removed, and are replaced by tarmac parking lots. Johor can’t simply be tall modern office towers, condos, hotel resorts and theme parks. The classic buildings have to be saved too, as they are a ‘living history’ for future generations to view Johor’s past. Like the Sketch Talks gatherings, there are grassroots groups of architects, historians, artists and concerned people who want to improve the quality of life in Johor, as well as preserve its’ living history. But educating Johor citizens about what they can do to change their perspective of ‘progress’ takes time. And getting the word to Johor authorities in the political and economic sectors who can make a difference has been slow too – “big business” is still the controlling interest in Johor’s vision. There’s room in Johor’s future to contain both the ‘living history’ of Johor architecture, as well as the desired modern cityscape – one trusts that that will be the vision which finally emerges.

Sketch Talks: In March 2015, I was invited to be one of the featured presenters at the “Sketch Talks” gathering; I presented a slide show of about 25 of my drawings, and talked about sketching the old architecture found in the Johor area. In August 2015, a young local artist and I had a 10-day exhibition of our Johor architecture sketches in the EhHe Cultural Arts Centre in Johor. Buz Walker-Teach is a visual artist, sketcher, illustrator, graphic designer and arts lecturer. Born in the USA, Buz earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design from the American Academy of Art, Chicago, and was a graphic designer & illustrator for 21 years in California before coming to Southeast Asia in 1995. Buz began his art teaching career in Penang, Malaysia in 1997. Since 2002, he has been a Senior Design lecturer with the Raffles Education Group, in Singapore & Manila, and currently teaches at Raffles Iskandar University in Johor Bahru.

The following articles showcase are extraced from Convergence ( a Raffles University Iskandar’s student publication – de.YARD ) on SKETCH Design Talks organize by renown Architect AR. Yap Tew Peng and Yvonne Yap of Y.Architect in Johor Bahru.