People in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi were in for a rare sight recently – artists adorning automobiles with art, ranging from bright flowers and fruits to Kathakali dancers, from cityscapes to scenes from daily life – every automobile more striking and eye-catching than the next.
Himanshu Jangid, a young artist and vintage car restorer from Jaipur in Rajasthan, has been traveling from one city to the other with the aim of making people understand the importance of art.
The artistic journey, which he has named Cartist Yatra, began on November 5 at Jaipur and has so far travelled to six cities that are major art and cultural centres. The Kochi portion of the exhibition concluded on Monday.
With the travelling exhibition, Himanshu tries to bring to fore the essence of local culture. In every city, he would invite local artists to be part of the exhibition. Speaking to TNM, he said, “The local artists everywhere have their own unique and diverse style. In Kochi also we invited 50 artists with a theme suiting the automobile exhibition.”
From Kochi, the Cartist Yatra goes on to Vijayawada. “In our country the diversity is visible every 25 km we pass, whether it is in language, attire or food. Local artists carry that diversity with them in a unique way. In Kochi, we got the support of an automobile dealer and painted on a WagonR,” he said.
When asked why he chose automobiles as the medium, he said it’s something that people can easily relate to.
“Automobile is a fresh canvas for artists, it’s a new concept and it’s a new movement which we are trying to come up with. We are trying to bring automobile and art on one canvas. If we had talked about automobile art in the 70’s people would have found it odd. But today automobiles are an inevitable part of life; most people can’t imagine life without a car, motorbike or bus. Hence by making automobile the theme, I have been trying to communicate more with people to make them realise the importance of art,” he said.
With painting on automobiles, he said it is like traveling with a mobile art installation. Himanshu is happy with the tremendous response he has received in all the cities he has travelled.
The yatra will last for 45 days. In Bengaluru, along with the exhibition there were art events which displayed three giant painted shipping containers, painted cars, automobile artworks, to name a few. The exhibition showcased a whole variety of modern art pieces, including a 1:1 scale of handmade frames of Jaguar E-Type and Volkswagen Beetle cars. There too the yatra gave a platform to local folk artists.
From Jaipur the yatra reached Ajmer as its first destination, where students of the city’s Mayo College painted a wall along with artists.
“In Ahmedabad the highlight was a live canvas painting event involving 125 artists and art students from different parts of the state. In Mumbai the yatra witnessed the participation of more than 125 artists and thousands of visitors praising this concept of automobile art. Out of the 125 artist participants, 25 were students of Sir JJ School of Art,” Himanshu said.
“In Pune a brand new Mercedes E 220 and an Ambassador car were painted. In Hyderabad, we got two cars, a Verna and a Maruti 800, painted by artists. In a span of one month, Cartist painted 17 cars and witnessed the participation of more than 600 artists and 15 schools. Cartist will be organising the annual Cartist automobile art festival in February 2018 by inviting selected artists from each city to Jaipur,” the artist said.