Art gives us a medium to express ourselves. We have been carving the cave walls since our evolution. We decorate our living space, dresses, and our bodies to express our values. Similarly, in South East Asia, especially in Pakistan and India, truck drivers treat their vehicles like their beloved. They use intricate design and patterns, augment them with chains and colourful mirrors to bring out their beauty.
Sobia Saad studied in Pakistan and completed her Masters degree in printmaking and fine art. Her focus so far has been on depicting the inner feelings, moods, psychology of our turmoil using oil on canvas. Since she moved from Pakistan to Ireland four years ago, she had been looking for a project to continue her practice.
Truck art is a popular form of regional decoration in South Asia, with Pakistani trucks featuring elaborate floral patterns and calligraphy. Pakistani decorated trucks, servicing in Afghanistan and Pakistan came to be known as jingle trucks by American troops and contractors. In Pakistan, Karachi is a major city centre for truck art, though there are other hubs in Rawalpindi, Swat, Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore. Trucks from Balochistan and Peshawar are often heavily trimmed with wood, while trucks from Rawalpindi and Islamabad often feature plastic work. Camel bone ornamentation and predominance of red colours is commonly seen on trucks decorated in Sindh.
Sobia Saad in her current project has kept one goal in mind, to introduce Irish people to the truck art culture that is so deep rooted in Pakistan. So, she used her old car whose fate was no more than a dump car. It is her contribution to society to express how colourful it could be when we open our arms for the people from other race, culture, and ethnicity. She also painted the famous urdu qoutes which are normally written on these trucks like “Siraf aik Muskrahat” and “Dekh Magar Piyar say”.
We wish her best in her future projects.
