Royal Elephants of the Present
These majestic beasts have been roaming around since the Independence of India,but their majestic artworks have never made a spotlight into the artworld.
For many years, it feels like to me that art and culture in India have been on the backburner. If one puts aside filmography, music and dance, the country seems hollow and without color. There might be many artists out there creating majestic pieces, but they have not been able to catch on to mainstream media. One of those majestic creations is seen by everyone but missed by all: The Indian Truck Art. You might see colorful and vibrant trucks crossing states with a distinctive Indian color palette of metallic orange, fresh air blue, turmeric yellow and dark spring green, embodied with national and personal symbolisms and serving a country of more than one billion people.
The Indian Truck Art follows a distinctive art style called Kitsch Art. Kitsch art[1] is often known to be mass produced and to have popular or cultural icons. Andy Warhol’s many creations follow along the line of Kitsch art. While it may sound perfectly normal, there is a darker side to this art style. In the incubation period of this art style, many artists often called it bad and ugly. An art style[2] which offers emotional gratification without the presence of artistic intellect and/or skills. Leaving personal opinions aside, Kitsch art is art. And like many other forms of art, it is beautiful, just like the trucks you may see on the national highway. The trucks embody Kitsch art through the use of its colors, production technique, artistic skills and use of popular and personal icons.
The colors used on the truck are very distinctive compared to the west. They are bright, bold, and highly saturated. The color roots itself from the cultural backgrounds of Rajasthan and Punjab which are dominated by a wide color spectrum. The fuchsia seen on Rajasthani sarees, the acidic yellow of turmeric and orange from the saffron all have a play on the creation and use of colors. Moreover, the drivers own geography might affect the color palette. A Rajasthani might use greater shades of red and violet whereas a Punjabi might use shades of blue and yellow. The colors can be seen from kilometers apart due to their glossy finish.
You might think that the glossy finish only has an aesthetic purpose but let me surprise you that it has a practical use as well. The enamel paint used on trucks gives a glossy finish which allows colors to shine in the heat. Serendipitously, that shine is also in crucial in nighttime journeys where the beam from headlights shines over the paint and makes the truck ever more visible. Moreover, the enamel paint has other uses too such as it is less prone to heat and dust wear. In India’s high summer heat and dusty atmosphere, a durable paint like enamel can survive those conditions with ease. This reduces the amount of times a driver might have to paint his truck. Furthermore, it is cheap, reducing the cost for the artist to make his creations. Thus, to make one of these wonderful creations, a truck driver might have to just shell out as little as 100 rupees.
Another factor which makes these creations relatively cheap is that everything created is used by hand. The straight lines, the shadowing, the typography is all made my hand sans the machines. The truck art artists have spent years practicing the styles, through the mentorship of their fathers, to create perfectly straight lines without missing a mark. Not only creating straight lines consistently, they are also exceptional at shadowing. Shadowing may have been popular recently through MS Office, but these artists have been doing this for almost a century, that too by hand. The typography present is very inconsistent…but in a good way. The important texts such as Transport Department symbols like “Horn OK Please” (the most iconic sign in the whole truck), “All India Permit” and “Goods Carrier” are often straight and very clear. On the other hand, personal messages like “India is great” and “mother’s blessings” (aren’t we all our mother’s children?) is often cursive with rounder edges. The different styles are great at creating excitement because each message is different from the other, offering a variety of ways the edges are curved or how long a letter is. Personal messages show the drivers personality to the rest. To drivers, who drive trucks for weeks on stretch with very few breaks, this is a way of making the truck their home.
It is not only letterings which have a huge impact on the driver and what gets put on the truck, but also graphical designs which are a plenty. Many of these graphical designs are highly symbolic and sometimes quirky. Often one would see a cow and its calf, a very prominent symbol across India, which represents fertility and protection. Truck driving is a very low paying job and a high-risk job, which accounted for 16.7%[1] of road accidents in 2018. There are also national symbols like the tiger, lotus, or peacock which showcase the drivers’ national pride. And lastly, there are also state and religious symbols such as The Khanda, Paniharis (women carrying water pots), Om and The Mecca. All of these symbols serve as a function to show the driver’s identity, their insignia, and their beliefs. As beautiful they are, these symbols are a way of looking deeper into the driver’s personality. Adding a personal touch to an eye-catching piece of art.
The Indian truck art is an art form which I have been searching for 5 years, ever since I got old enough to understand abstract ideas (as per Piaget). It is an art form which showcases India’s diverse population and values through a less political and capitalistic platform. It is personal, which, in my opinion, is the best form of art. The colors, the designs and the typography remind me of my home whenever I am in a foreign culture. It is nostalgic, bringing me memories of the food, the festivals, and the people.
[1] Source: National Crime Records Bureau
