fatman17
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Pakistani Truck Art
11/25/2008 10:12:44 AM
by Rachel Levitt
Tags: Arts, visual art, vehicle decoration, Pakistan, trucks, embellishment, traditional art, Neatorama
Though several Asian countries practice the art of vehicle decoration, Pakistan takes the custom to a higher level. Across the country just about every kind of transportation, from trucks to fruit carts, has vibrantly decorated examples among its ranks.
Amherst religion professor Jamal J. Elias has spent years researching this form of expression, and has found that the embellishment is not just aesthetic, but also represents the religious, sentimental and emotional worldviews of the individuals employed in the truck industry.
This kind of adornment doesnt come cheap. It costs about $5,000 to decorate a truck completely, most of that money going to structural modifications such as additional levels and extended roofs. (Note that the countrys per capita income is only about $2,000.) Most transport companies will even foot the bill despite the lack of a discernible business advantage, illustrating the importance of the tradition to drivers.
Since trucks represent the major means of transporting cargo throughout Pakistan," Elias concludes, "truck decoration might very well be this societys major form of representational art.
(Thanks, Neatorama.)
Image courtesy of Murtaza Imran Ali, licensed under Creative Commons.
11/25/2008 10:12:44 AM
by Rachel Levitt
Tags: Arts, visual art, vehicle decoration, Pakistan, trucks, embellishment, traditional art, Neatorama
Though several Asian countries practice the art of vehicle decoration, Pakistan takes the custom to a higher level. Across the country just about every kind of transportation, from trucks to fruit carts, has vibrantly decorated examples among its ranks.
Amherst religion professor Jamal J. Elias has spent years researching this form of expression, and has found that the embellishment is not just aesthetic, but also represents the religious, sentimental and emotional worldviews of the individuals employed in the truck industry.
This kind of adornment doesnt come cheap. It costs about $5,000 to decorate a truck completely, most of that money going to structural modifications such as additional levels and extended roofs. (Note that the countrys per capita income is only about $2,000.) Most transport companies will even foot the bill despite the lack of a discernible business advantage, illustrating the importance of the tradition to drivers.
Since trucks represent the major means of transporting cargo throughout Pakistan," Elias concludes, "truck decoration might very well be this societys major form of representational art.
(Thanks, Neatorama.)
Image courtesy of Murtaza Imran Ali, licensed under Creative Commons.
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