@its.wazer, who specialises in lettering and graffiti, painted an abstract print of amorphic splats as well as two rather funky guitars with some lettering. @ItsPokeTwo merged the Wasl Properties logo with his flair for calligraphy and painted a typical scene in Dubai on the wall next to it. From our perspective, the scene lets passersby in on the joke as what is depicted is not unlike what’s on the streets of Karama.

The scenes are lifelike. Whimsical. Even phantasmagorical. On one wall, a parrot painted by @yumzone_ and @katun, is in mid-flight. On another, the Dubai skyline is depicted in sepia tones (a collaboration by @newba and the others). An underwater scene by @pakey_one shows a fearsome great white shark with its jaws wide open, as if headed right at the viewer. Another scene reminiscent of the movie Up shows a station wagon coasting along the skies, borne by dozens of balloons.

This project follows the Dubai Walls initiative where 16 international street artists were commissioned to create murals and other forms of street art at an open-air shopping mall.

In Malaysia, street art’s popularity has only increased in recent years, in part thanks to Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic whose murals in Georgetown, Penang have gained fame internationally. And there are several lesser known but just as beautiful pieces in Ipoh, Kuching, Melaka, and Johor Bahru, many of which were created by international artists for local companies and initiatives. In 2015, Petronas’s #tanahairku project gave rise to six murals created by Malaysian artists in Kuala Lumpur.