HYDERABAD: How does it feel when you drive around the city in a flashy, painted car? Imagine people slowing down their vehicles and turning their heads just to get a glimpse of it. Moreover, if the car is painted with a stroke of art, it will definitely grab many eyeballs.Cartist, a Jaipur-based organisation, brought the less explored automobile art to the city during its maiden visit to Hyderabad between December 2 to 4. The automobile exhibition aimed to explore and blend the multicultural space of pan India by roping local artists of Telangana.
A posse of over 75 artists came together to showcase a range of vintage cars, autorickshaws, trucks, two-wheelers, suitcases, artefacts smeared with colours along with a touch of culture. The icing on the cake was the Maruti car painted by the local artists. With a view of Charminar on one end and the modern Ramoji Film City on the other, the artists traced the changing face of Hyderabad and raised awareness on the need to preserve heritage. Meanwhile, a truck was transformed into a colourful canvas displaying artwork on the theme of environmental conservation.
A host of the other paintings brought abstract depictions of Indian art and culture into light. “The idea is to encourage and promote art and diversity of Indian culture by getting local artists into the fold and hence, giving them more visibility,” said Himanshu Jangid of Cartist.The exhibition put up at Hitech drew around 50,000 crowd during the two days. As people thronged the venue to get a glimpse of the cars, the enthusiastic teenagers and Millennials were seen taking selfies in and around the vintage cars lined up at the exhibition. As many as 10 cars and two trucks were brought to the city from Jaipur for the bring art closer to the masses.
The exhibition was the part of what the organisation calls “Cartist Yatra”. An entourage of artists with a caravan of automobiles have taken up a 9,100 km long journey via Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Delhi to spread art to masses. The journey will culminate at Cartist Automobile Arts Festival, Jaipur, in February, 2018.