Grim dawn the attendant driver#

The grim prospect of redundancy was always there, but he has also had a job at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Archeology for the last 10 years, a вЂclass fourвЂ™ position to fall back on. вЂњOn the other hand, there are more artists and so we end up idle.вЂќ вЂњThere are few truck owners investing in art now,вЂќ says Khan. But trucks are pricey and truck art a major investment, with prospects for work diminishing over the years. For that, he went back to the streets of Shuba Bazaar where the trucks workshops were, Bedfords and Hinos waiting to be transformed, to be turned into вЂbridesвЂ™ for their drivers, married as they were to a lonely life on the road. He did it on a whim, a random dalliance to create something for love, not money. It was his first attempt at painting something other than a truck. When he married off one of his sisters, he gifted her two vases he painted with truck art. His father was a cobbler who died young, leaving Khan to care for eight brothers and sisters. Khan learnt painting from his uncle Sher Mohammad, a truck artist, to support his family.

Ismail Khan paints the body of a truck | Photos by the writer вЂњDa zamoong da gharibay zay day ,вЂќ he says apologetically. Nor does his tiny, decrepit rooftop abode in the noisy Shahqabool neighbourhood of Dabgari Garden, Peshawar, in any manner recall the wanton opulence and grandeur of Imperial Russia. Albeit prosaic in merely transferring the familiar aesthetic and sensibility of truck art from a larger medium to a smaller one, KhanвЂ™s creativity is original, as he rescues individual motifs that escape attention and appreciation on the crowded canvas of a heavily decorated truckвЂ™s body, and gives them a niche of their own.Д«ut in the absence of state patronage, as is the sad fate of artists generally in Pakistan, and their eternal expectation of it to escape an impoverished state, his art is bound to appeal more to commoners than kings or nobles. But apart from their garish aspect, and whether truck art is your cup of tea, in time they could come to be as coveted as crockery from Imperial Russia.Д®ach of these pieces, after all, is an individual artefact, set apart from others in form, design and execution, each one bearing a signature of the artistвЂ™s skill. KhanвЂ™s painted cups and kettles bring to mind vintage Gardner tea sets from 19th-century Russia, albeit with an aesthetic that is loud, as truck art is supposed to be. But is truck art destined to endure its limited appeal? Imagine eating and drinking out of art pieces and taking them home to your aunt, nicely gift-wrapped.ДЄ truck artist in Peshawar survived the dearth of work during the pandemic by moving from painting heavy vehicles to dainty crockery. His truck art is meant to grace your dining room, without the body of a truck and the attendant wheels, of course! By telescoping trademark truck art themes on to pots and pans painted like the real thing, he turns humble crockery into art forms, without compromising its use. Ismail Khan, a truck artist in Peshawar, has just added to that meagre array of choices. For a long time, admirers of truck art have had to be content with miniature replicas of trucks or rickshaws, painted in psychedelic hues and motifs drawn from Pakistani folk culture.

They are a nuisance to fit into a handy gift-bag to bring home to a loved one. On shelves, they cannot sit but awkwardly, and from walls, they would hang clumsily, if at all. Trouble is, trucks make for huge art pieces and heavy mementos. For truck art enthusiasts and foreign tourists who go wide-eyed at the sight of these moving canvases, these trucks offer a wide-angle view of our political and cultural sensibilities, rendered in portraits of generals, politicians, matinee idols, saints and, of course, the ubiquitous winged-centaur with the mien of an angelic woman - the buraq.

Grim dawn the attendant driver#

Ismail Khan at work in his studio in Dabgari Garden, PeshawarД«rightly painted trucks and buses are as familiar a sight to us as the Grand Trunk Road is to your average truck driver who spends his life plying it in such decked-out vehicles.