Pakistani truck art

April 27, 2005 12:25 PM

Trucks for those who like art that moves.
posted by TimothyMason (11 comments total)

Neat-o post. Amazing works!

I lived in India for a year, and compared to the blandness that is the American vehicle, was astounded to commonly see trucks like these.

I once saw a man fix his truck motor with a rubber band... but that's another story.
posted by Specklet at 12:28 PM on April 27, 2005

Great find. It's unfortunate the pictures aren't bigger as I'd love to see more details.
posted by Mitheral at 1:08 PM on April 27, 2005

awesome.
posted by radiosig at 1:14 PM on April 27, 2005

Short article on the trucks by Martin Sökefeld, who took the photos.
posted by TimothyMason at 1:39 PM on April 27, 2005

And you can zoom the photos here. Click on the gallery accompanying the article (another one).
posted by TimothyMason at 1:47 PM on April 27, 2005

There is also the Filipino jeepney, similar art form. In their case, it's a taxi that's built on a jeep frame.
posted by beagle at 2:37 PM on April 27, 2005

Marvelous marvelous marvelous. Thanks. There's an out-of-print 1976 book by photographer Jean-Charles Blanc called Afghan Trucks that's similarly amazing, although short on info about the practice.
posted by mediareport at 3:26 PM on April 27, 2005

Sigh as a relatively new user I never post and someone already posted about Jeepneys. Jeeps, that's all I can post with confidence about. As a Jeep fan, I of course, wish I had a Jeepney. It's a natural progression you see...one must acquire and build one of each era. What does this have to do with truck art I dunno I just felt like posting about Jeeps. Jeep. See how it rolls off your tongue? I should submit mine all bashed up by rocks as a sort of modern sculpture thing.
posted by evilelvis at 7:50 PM on April 27, 2005

Fantastic post, thank you Mr. Mason.

Interesting to note that most cultures like to adorn their semis in some way. I remember when I was in Japan, many of the trucks had amazing light displays.

It would be interesting to see a comparison.
posted by Dag Maggot at 8:18 PM on April 27, 2005

This is cool, nice post TimothyMason - these are like giant art cars. I'd seen some pics of a few trucks before, but had never read anything about them. On a similar vein, see the Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh.

...on preview, Dag Maggot, here is a post mathowie made on tricked out Japanese big rigs - maybe these are the trucks you are referring to?
posted by madamjujujive at 9:04 PM on April 27, 2005

There was a similar post about pakistani trucks some time back, but it's gone awol, but this Painted Truck link is still active.
posted by dhruva at 2:17 AM on April 28, 2005