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Community
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Stories of Vendors
Venetian masks conjure up mysterious and romantic images of clandestine meetings in smoke filled, dim lit parties full of men in puffed and powdered hair and women in large glorious colored ballroom dresses with discrete moles sitting innocently close to the lips. Whispers and rumors spread furiously as she arrives dressed in red holding a sequined and feathered piece up to her face and he, oh so obviously, lights up behind his black, red horned, long nosed piece - puff ! The vision ends as the noisy blaring of the lorry on Dato Keramat Road stops my nostalgic reverie, bring me straight back to these two young people whose handy work so led me astray.
Theirs was a meeting of like minds under circumstances a little mad. Twenty four year old Kah Mei, fresh out of university, had walked into Adren's little florist shop looking for ribbons. She mind boggled him with her questions and quest for strange kinds of ribbons until he, probably totally bemused, calmly offered her a job instead! Adren, thirty one, has been in the flower industry for nine years now, something he went into after working three years as a gold jeweller. Boredom and stress got to him and he decided to put his innate sense of taste and liking for hand made products to good use as a florist. Now the shop needed young and creative minds and who better than Kah Mei with her degree in translation and interpretation! "Passion has no reason," she states with a smile, "when you feel it, you do it".
In the mean while, the two had been experimenting with masks and had allowed they mood to take them on a wildfire journey of fantasy! They fueled their enthusiasm with movies like The Phantom of The Opera and The Man in the Iron Mask, European magazines, falling in love with the elegant feathers, quills and beads used. Soon they were asking their suppliers for special items for the masks, sourcing a lot of their material locally. "We use feathers, sand, sequins, lace and even bells', Adren informs. "It can get very costly with a single feather setting us back as much as RM30. Sometimes I get my friends to look for decorations in Thailand." The masks are very special. Although they are essentially hard card, these young people have devised a method to make them supple and comfortable to wear. That is their trade secret - on feeling the masks, they are smooth and soft on the inside. Each piece is a work of art, carefully researched and designed, using hard-to-find decorations. A mask can take between one to three days to finish. Adren is quick to indicate the importance of mood yet again. "It depends on the mood, sometime we do nothing for days".
I imagine, after use at the ball, each mask would hold immense memories and quiet secrets, only to be remembered and smiled upon surreptitiously by the wearer. Such a clandestine possession could never be discarded but, rather, would find a place on the wall in its owners home, forever a topic of conversation. These young people have close attachments to their families. Kah Mei had lost a father and is clear that she wants to spend much of her time with the remaining members of her family. The loss has clearly carved a deep sense of responsibility and attachment to her mum. Adren tells me his parents did not control his pursuits but encouraged him to follow wherever his talents took him. Perhaps it is this common bond to their families that allows Kah Mei and Adren to work together, sharing talents, so successfully. They are also willing to create a mask according to your needs or to match your gown. Adren
and Kah Mei are opening a stall at The Little Penang Road Market on
the 17th of December 2006. Do come meet them.
__________________________________ Written and photographed by Ambiga Devy. © All Rights Reserved |
Masks
- Wild, Clandestine Affairs!
Lew
Kah Mei and Adren Ong are the designers and makers of our own, Dato
Keramat Road based, Penang Venetian Masks. Don't get me wrong, they
are gorgeous and can rival those made worldwide any day.
And
the Masks? one asks. "The story is", she quips," a few
months ago we had an order for 60 masks for a Halloween party, we came
up with the ideas and the concepts but they had budget constraints and
scrapped the project'. 
