Everyday No Parking Sculptures paste-up is available to view indefinitely at Cakoi 166, 166 Lebuh Carnavon, George Town, or until irrevocably faded by the sun (All photos: SooPhye)
Food and art have always been popular bedfellows. Ancient Stone Age cave art employed paints derived from fruit, vegetables and animal fat while Renaissance artists such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo created stunning portraits using all manner of fresh produce as inspiration.
The link between food culture and society has been a recurring theme in Hoo Fan Chon’s art, from The World is Your Restaurant (2021), an installation of a typical Chinese banquet table complete with lazy Susan and cutlery, to Let Them Eat Salmon (2023).
His latest work, Everyday No Parking Sculptures, which debuted in May, combines food and art while addressing the contentious problem of a severe lack of public parking space. Having sought the permission of Cat Liew, the young, fresh-faced and shaven-headed operator of Cakoi 166, a corner shop specialising in the deep-fried dough treat known as cakoi (yew char kueh to the Hokkiens or crullers in English), Hoo — in the deep of night — proceeded to wheatpaste the shop’s entire façade with images of makeshift parking sculptures.
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Born in Pulau Ketam, Selangor, the Chen Moh- and Catholic High School-educated boy pursued his degree in photography in London before arriving in Penang in 2012. “My UK visa was expiring; so, I returned to Malaysia after the London Olympics,” he says.
Somehow, life took Hoo away from the Klang Valley and led him north to Penang, where he ran the Run Amok artistic space from 2012 to 2017 as well as learnt the art of woodcarving from one of the island’s great masters, the late Yeap Siew Kay, in Penang Hill as part of an initiative with the Penang Heritage Trust. “And, now, I have been here for over a decade,” he says in mock disbelief. “But, yeah, public and private spaces in George Town can be so easily blurred, especially in the heritage zone. You could just be sitting outside your home, minding your own business, and — boom — a group of tourists on the Unesco trail take photos of you. Or you happen to live near a famous food stall and getting in and out of your house becomes a nightmare. In a way, this is both the bane and beauty of living here.”
What started as a casual hobby — photographing makeshift “no parking” signs that caught his eye — has, to Hoo’s surprise, snowballed into a collection of hundreds of images. “Only local Penangites know how territorial their fellow islanders can be. And creative! I mean, most could have so easily slapped a ‘no parking’ sign on a generic plastic chair but, no. And this is what caught my eye. And still does.”
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Cakoi 166 opens as early as 6am, until 11.30am. So, those craving a cruller with a side of culture should swing by around 11am, grab a piping-hot dough stick with soy milk, then hang around until Liew closes shop — to reveal all 72 images that Hoo selected and poster-bombed onto the shutters.
“Obviously, I picked those that displayed a bit more effort with its aesthetics,” he grins. “I mean, most are probably by random, irritated aunties and uncles and, yet, you can see how some can be genuinely sculptural, possessing varying degrees of complexity: from ambiguous, organic forms to those that resemble potted bonsai.”
Most feature upcycled or recycled materials — such as wooden planks, tyres and pails — while others offer a unique take on utilitarian street art, composed of an old coconut, kitchen towel and raffia string, or a red Chinese lantern mounted onto a stick, or even a huge ripe jackfruit stuffed halfway into a bucket.
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Hoo, 43, is taking a break from the island until August while he conducts a workshop at the Schwules Museum in Berlin before travelling onwards to Amsterdam and then taking up a research residency in Stockholm with IASPIS, the Swedish Arts Grants committee’s international programme for visual and applied arts.
Should you happen to find yourself in Penang, though, make it a point to stop by Cakoi 166 — to enjoy a local snack as well as a unique, no-frills experience of iconoclastic urban art.
Perhaps Hoo has shown us just what art should really be all about — honest, real, not out of reach and unapologetically interwoven with daily life.
'Everyday No Parking Sculptures' paste-up is available to view indefinitely at Cakoi 166, 166 Lebuh Carnavon, George Town, or until irrevocably faded by the sun.
This article first appeared on May 26, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.
