GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Arts Week, which began on March 24 with the intention to promote arts in the state, hit a snag when giant sculptures of Penang’s famous food were vandalised by irresponsible visitors.

Penang State Exco for Tourism Development, Arts, Culture and Heritage (PETACH), Yeoh Soon Hin, who was apparently dejected by the act today said that such occurrence took place due to the attitude of certain visitors who ignored the signages requesting them not to have any contact with the fragile sculptures.

“While I believe that these acts do not represent everyone, future acts of vandalism can be deterred if all visitors take a vigilant stand and will care for the exhibits,“ he told reporters after inspecting the vandalised sculptures displayed at a mall at Bayan Lepas here.

The sculptures affected included giant-sized bowls of cendol, char koay teow, laksa and durian, which were all made out of styrofoam.

The only security personnel on-duty for the exhibition said that despite his reminders as well as the “Look, but please don’t touch” signages placed in front of the sculptures, some visitors ignored and continued to make contacts with the items while posing for photograph at the premises.

“There was one instance where one of the visitors was seen lifting one end of the char koay teow sculpture just to take a photo,“ he said.

The sculpture exhibition was organised to complement a wiring art show by a local artist, Lee Siang, at the mall.

Meanwhile, Yeoh said temporary repairs had been carried out on the ruined sculptures pending the sculpture artist coming in to make the finer touches on the works, before the sculptures could be showcased again to the public.

“However, should there be a repeated episode of vandalism, it is with a heavy heart that the damaged artworks would have to be taken off even before the exhibition ends,“ he said adding that the Penang Arts Week, served as a common platform for local artists to showcase their works until March 31. — Bernama