Truck Art Project
Documenting Pakistan's Decorated Vehicles
Pakistan Truck-Art Tour of NZ
Artie will be stationed outside the Depot Artspace until the exhibition ends on Thursday the 20th.
Truck Art Tour of New Zealand May / June 2013
The Event: Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, Wellington. 9 – 23 May, 2013 & Depot Gallery, Devonport, Auckland 1 – 20 June, 2013
Painting Pakistan Proud – Truck Art comes to New Zealand.
Peter Grant’s photography showcases truck art and its riotous colour, with Karachi artist, Younus Nawaz, painting and decorating a ‘Kiwi’ vintage ambulance.
- June 20 Pack up Depot exhibition
Members of the public and media will not only be able to see this fantastic mobile work of art but they will also be able to see the genuine truck-artist at work and have a taste of Pakistani culture with a cup of Chai Tea.
An interactive visual and cultural experience,
Painting Pakistan Proud has something for everyone. Over the journey of the project, the ambulance will become a unique mobile work of art. The exterior will be painted in the latest art truck techniques; inside the vehicle will be a photo exhibition of Pakistan truck art. At the Pataka gallery, people can watch Younus create the strikingly beautiful mobile art that dominates the roads of Pakistan. The project will then take to the roads of the North Island, to Devonport, Auckland, visiting town centers, galleries and schools on the way.
Truck Art
Truck art tradition goes back many centuries to the decorated camel trains of the Silk Road. After Pakistan split from India in 1947, Karachi was the only port in the region. Trucks were sent from here on long-distance journeys to northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the largely illiterate drivers, being lonely, started to paint their vehicles with images depicting their ambitions, dreams, beliefs, politics and popular culture. Truck companies developed the ‘Silk Road style’ by embellishing their vehicles in ever more flamboyant ways to attract customers. The custom has since spread to all modes of transport in Pakistan – from rickshaws to buses, carts, bicycles and boats.
First materials were metal features, wooden carvings and paint; over the years artists have added reflective plastic stickers, flags and LED lights. A new, undecorated Bedford truck costs about $10,000. (all estimates & rates are in NZ dollars) A complete decoration job, which can take up to three months, can cost a further $16,000. Artists are paid between $6 and $12 a day.
Pakistani drivers take great pride in their intricately patterned trucks and buses. And these vehicles – and the lives of their owners and artists – contrast starkly with media images of sectarian violence in this politically unstable country.
Tribal and truck art business woman Anjum Rana will help the artist and run the workshops in New Zealand. Awarded the UNESCO award in 2008 for her work with truck art, Anjum has done more than anyone else to promote truck-art at home and beyond Pakistan. You can see her shop website
...::::Tribal Truck Art:::...... Anjum Rana has organized a number of vehicles painted truck-art style round the world; among them were a cab for the Luton Musem in London which was displayed at the Olympics, a VW for Amman children’s museum a Landcruiser for King Hussien, a rickshaw for the transport museum in Delhi and a school bus for the Rafiq Hariri foundation in Beirut.
Pakistan Truck-Art Tour of NZ | Truck Art Project
