Reaching Up

The boy's palm is directed toward a real hole in the old wall. A real chair stands beneath his bare feet. Ernest Zacharevic came up with the figure only after choosing this wall on Cannon Street: its holes and worn plaster became part of the action.

In twenty twelve, Zacharevic was a little-known Lithuanian artist living in Penang. He brought a proposal to festival director Joe Sidek: to paint George Town residents on urban walls that themselves suggested the pose and the story. For Zacharevic, this was his first major project in public space. Sidek wanted to bring free art out of galleries and onto the street, and he accepted the idea, although he was criticized for choosing a foreigner.

Getting permission proved harder than choosing the characters. The historic center had recently been added to the UNESCO list, the old plaster was fragile, and the organizers spent weeks coordinating the work with municipal officials. The artist was allowed to use lime paint: it did not seal the wall, but it inevitably faded along with its surface.

Here, Zacharevic placed a chair against the wall and painted a child who was not tall enough to reach the hole. The work did not receive a separate authorial title. It is called “Boy on a Chair” after the real object, and “Reaching Up” after the painted figure's only movement.

Photographs of the festival murals spread across the internet almost at once. Lines formed at the walls, the images were put on postcards, bags, and mugs, and Zacharevic received international commissions. Meanwhile, the lime paint did what it had been chosen to do: it gradually wore away without damaging the old wall.

In twenty twenty-four, after numerous requests from residents and visitors, the Penang authorities invited Zacharevic to restore several of his works. He cleaned this wall, recreated the original colors, and repaired the objects of the installation without changing the composition. The present-day boy is still reaching toward the same hole from the same real chair, but his paint was renewed by the artist's hand twelve years later.