Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Truck Art Video - Police crack down on overdecorated trucks

Pakistani truck drivers take special pride in decorating their vehicles. But police are clamping down on excessive decoration- especially when it blocks the driver's view.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goisz7ipovU

Comments were interesting:

Pakistan Social Classes - Book Titles

The idea of Pakistan by Stephen P. Cohen

A history of Pakistan and its origins by Christophe Jaffrelot

I would prefer to look at books written by Pakistani's for a better understanding of the culture and the social classes

Truck Art Video - Body decorations

It is not cheap, thousands of dollars are being spent on these trucks.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZTwG_Z0PDg

Truck Art - Animation

Nice little animation on elements of truck art and Pakistan:

This animation has been created to emphasize the amount of symbolism used in Truck art of Pakistan.




Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEQUbPHNyIM

Truck Art Video - Exploring Pakistan: Karachi Uncovered (Covers social classes)

Scottish Actor Atta Yaqub, star of Ken Loach's controversial film Ae Fond Kiss, goes on a journey to discover the cosmopolitan city of Karachi in Pakistan. Immersing himself in the glamorous world of supermodels and slick TV shows, he finds his misconceptions about the country his parents came from challenged and his opinions changed.

Arriving in the country for the first time in 20 years, Atta gets himself into a press conference for the Lux Style Awards -- Pakistan's equivalent of the Oscars. Befriending A list stars, he finds a country in the grip of a television boom.

At one of the myriad satellite stations broadcasting a diet of music, fashion, and drama he sees how television is influencing the aspirations of modern urbanites. To get in on the act, he tries out for a part in a top drama, but in a toe curling audition, finds his Urdu is not up to scratch.

He meets some young men obsessed with modifying sports cars and asks they think of the more traditional art form of truck modification. Culture, they say, is not interesting for them. Dazzled by the highly skilled workmanship that goes into truck decoration, Atta begins to suspect that modern Pakistan is out of touch with its own traditions.

To investigate further, he tries his hand at modelling. Eager to find out exactly how far girls will go when it comes to flesh content, he meets the country's top models. However, even the most modern Pakistanis, it seems, are not willing to bear flesh. Being modern he learns, does not mean being western.

Part 1:


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ildBPYhE3Vw

Part 2:


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv353XLQ6BI

Part 3:


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuH99NWDVTI

Part 4:


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mtUUOA7UV0

Part 5:


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm178CBTZqk

Truck Art Video - Truck Depot

A truck depot is about the last place on earth you'd expect to find an art scene. But in Pakistan, the tradition of painting and detailing trucks adds glitter and glamour to the transport business, and offers a colorful distraction in a country tormented by war and political instability.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWvy8LiUn7w

Truck Art Video -Truck Art Decoration

The art of pakistan truck decoration.

Pakistani trucks must be one of the most recognisable features of the country ! It is said that many truck drivers, unable to marry because of lack of time or money, pour all of their money, love and inspiration into their vehicles. Traditionally these have been old style English Bedford trucks. With beautiful curves and old styling these must be a landmark of the country .

All across Pakistan, this rolling folk art has turned village lanes, city streets and long-distance highways into a national gallery without walls, a free-form, kaleidoscopic exhibition in perpetual motion. The vast majority of Pakistans trucks, buses and motorized rickshaws are riots of color, bedizened top to bottom with eye-popping landscapes, portraits, calligraphic poetry, religious verses and wisecracking expressions of star-spangled banter. Only the biggest, blandest container freight trucks, the 18-wheeler rigs, escape decoration, looking naked by comparison.

The dazzling, eclectic choice of images is a cultural grab bag, mingling with equal gusto East and West, secular and sacred. Pakistani film stars like Musarrat Shaheen and athletes like cricket legend Imram Khan vie for space with figures from Greek myth and European icons from the Mona Lisa to Princess Diana. Decked out with romanticized visions of Pakistani military heroes like Sarwar Shaheed, F-16 fighter jets and Ghauri missiles, some trucks become roving patriotic billboards. Others give prominence to religious shrines like the Kabah in Makkah and the Faysal Mosque in Islamabad, or they display verses writ large on an image of an open Quran. The Prophets winged horse, Buraq, is a favorite emblem, handily symbolizing trustworthy devotion and speed. Dreamlike scenes of wooded lakes and snow-capped mountains, alpine hunting lodges and tigers chasing deer are framed by flowers and diamond-shaped reflective strips in bright red, orange and green.

In the cabs, faux marble Formica-paneled doors open onto gaudy treasure caves filled with artificial roses and marigolds spun of silk and satin. Tiny faceted mirrors and rick-rack ring the windshields, while swaying pompoms and wall clocks festooned with flashing lights hang from the ceilings. Giant heavy-lidded eyes painted on side panels and pastel-colored scarves fluttering from cab windows are intended to ward off the evil eye.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKgGVXIbkvA

Truck Art Video - Exhibition - Foxy Shahzadi on its way from Pakistan to France

- Art on Wheels Tour at 'Breakfast at Dawn' (2nd of November 2009) - From Islamabad to Paris in a truck-art-painted '74 Beetle nicknamed Foxy Shahzadi -



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1e1ztpJeYg

More videos of foxy shehzadi:



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nawH9xV9DPE



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StxHSj5L-A4

Truck Art Video - Indus News Reporter



Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3vaU4ylzA

Truck Art Video - Renegade Economist Pakistan Special - Truck Painting in Karachi

While in Pakistan The Renegade Economist investigates the intriguing world of truck painting in Karachi.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV4_mpFWYk8

Truck Art Video - Truck Painting


Aug 2003
The streets of Pakistan are teeming with canvases on wheels as truck drivers compete to design the most beautiful truck.

In the eyes of the drivers an unadorned vehicle is a terrible sight. The most popular designs involve reflector glass panels which make the truck glow when caught in another vehicle's headlights. "It's our passion that we have to make the truck very beautiful," explains one driver. Unfortunately the drivers have little time or money left over to spend on what's under the bonnet.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EhNAib0b6Q

"No need for bus route numbers here..."

The comments on youtube are really interesting. Gives an insight on how people view this phenomenon.


Truck Art Video of Exhibition at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festiva

in Washington, DC



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfLDQydi9lE

Truck Art - The cultural representation of Pakistan



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV6GVCGRsz8

Truck Art Video

rom the shores of the Arabian Sea to the peaks of the Himalayas, highways are filled with Moving Canvases. Truck Art is the unique practice of transforming cargo carriers into masterpieces. Throughout South Asia, especially in Pakistan, huge sums of money, years of experience and training, and painstaking detail have brought artwork to every city, village, and port with a road. Their inimitable style has evolved into a genre of art that is extending into a broader culture. The story of this phenomenon, its origins, influence, and future, are explored in this film that finds the extraordinary in the ordinary.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xykui0Yb72Q

Interesting how this person has made the video, and the music that has been used is very ethnic.

"It's got a historical and traditional value. You see it everywhere and it's very very Pakistani."

"Bright & Uplifting."

Truck Art Doucmentry (german)

A short documentary produced for ARD German TV in early 2008. Showing one of the colorful culture of Pakistan that is Truck Art



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92h0UGPNr-8


German to English Translation:

It’s not colourful enough for Gulhan Afriddi as he steers a true piece of Art over Pakistan's rocky roads.
His everyday truck of an English brand Bettford has been decorated & painted for whopping 4000 Euros.
I love my decorated 10 tonne truck, customers love it too and that’s why there is always good jobs Gulhan sais.
Afridis super colourful Truck stops at every spot.
With the massive truck he transports machinery, rice & wheat.
He earns himself 450 Euros a month, a small fortune in Pakistan.

His truck was decorated by Guhla Nabi, here at a mechanical workshop on the edge of Islamabad.
If it’s about decorating or colouring in Trucks Navi is the man to talk to, since 40 years is the wreckage rebuilder in business.
Up to 12 Trucks a year are rebuilt & decorated by Guhla & his 11 workers.

With the 10 kilo Hammer Nabi work on the trucks as if he wasn’t 56 but only a teenager.
We take up to 3-4 days sometimes even longer to get the dints out. It’s very hard to make money & our arms hurt at the end of the day. You need a lot of strength to do this Nabi sais.

Behind these stunning trucks is a lot of work, first the truck is rendered with wood.
On top of that pre- painted colour panels are placed then it’s freshly painted & re-cabled.
These trucks are a big eye catcher. If everything goes good the truck can be finished in around 3 weeks sometimes even 2.
Every customer has very different ideas of how they want their trucks to look.
Some want horse pictures or even actors some want pictures of men.
Depending on the work it can cost from 1000 to 4000 Euros.

Since 900 years this “Mogul Kaiser” time consuming art work has been created.
Not only trucks are decorated pretty much everything with 4 wheels.
These Trucks are like a business card, the drivers behind the wheel express themselves with them as to where they are from and to what their dreams are etc.

After one hour of hard labour in the hot sun Gulha takes a break.
Toscha Usha his business parter also has a Painting workshop outside, here is where the trucks come for the final touch!
After 3 days Gulhan will pick up the truck, that’s how long it takes to paint.
Apparently all colours are waterproof.

A couple of years ago a foreigner came to us he was French or German he desperately wanted a nice picture for his VW buggie so we painted him a nice eagle onto his bonnet sais Toscha

At the workshop not only are trucks repaired painted & decorated but they are created from scratch.
This is a big business in Pakistan despite the political turbulence and ever rising oil prices the transportation is still booming and the economy manages to grow.
Per finished truck Gulham earns him self 250 Euros, which is good money considering these kind of jobs would normally be paid a lot less.
The more money spent on the truck the nicer the finished product.

It’s a real competition between the drivers; each one wants to be better than the other.
Some of these trucks are 20 to 30 years old.
And in the eyes of the European these trucks are Old timers ready for the museum.
In Pakistan on the other hand these trucks are a real hit and until that changes
Guhla Nabi won’t be complain about the work he is getting.