Seeking paradise: The image and reality of truck art

June 29, 2016 12:41 AM

"A journey to discovering the roots of truck 'art' and the lives of those who work behind its colourful allure" from the Pakistani monthly, Herald.
posted by bardophile (9 comments total)

Like the art itself, this article is full of striking details: it’s perceived as an art in decline, its practitioners deemed mere artisans, with the legacy of British rule perhaps partly to blame (‘The British turned us all into craftsmen,’ […] ‘They do not want people to become thinking artists because once you think, you question’); an illiterate artist ‘paints words as shapes and images’; petrol is sometimes mixed with the paint to help it dry faster; some of the decoration, despite being ubiquitous, is technically illegal (‘the decorated truck is, by definition, outside the law’); etc., etc. How fascinating! thanks, bardophile.
posted by misteraitch at 3:14 AM on June 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Starts to post a picture of the bitchin' airbrushed van he used to have in the '80s, looks at the vehicles in the article; stops posting.
posted by Captain l'escalier at 6:34 AM on June 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

For the past 20 years on the internet there are stories like this where i just wish THEY WOULD POST MORE PHOTOS! I mean, its not a bandwith issue anymore. It's like people are stuck in the mindset of an online article that is like a magazine article. It's not. Stories like this, or about weird beautiful natural phenomena with so few photos...make no fucking sense.

Also - - people would easily pay $$$ for small panels of this type of work. There is absolutely no reason why these artisan/craftsmen have to dissappear. Why not facilitate that? That's what the fucking internet was supposed to be about.
posted by brainimplant at 7:14 AM on June 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

More pictures
posted by bardophile at 7:30 AM on June 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Herald is still primarily a print magazine.
posted by bardophile at 7:31 AM on June 29, 2016

If you want more pictures, the book Horn Please is fun. India, not Pakistan, but there's a lot of stylistic similarity. It's mostly photos, this article is a nice companion about the culture.
posted by Nelson at 9:21 AM on June 29, 2016

Granta 112
posted by Ideefixe at 9:21 AM on June 29, 2016

There's a small, but growing market of objects decorated in the truck art style. Small chests, cups and saucers, plates, mugs, vases, shoes.

And then there's the truck art Volkswagen Beetle.
posted by bardophile at 12:27 PM on June 29, 2016

This book on the subject should be worth checking out.
posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 4:44 PM on June 29, 2016