For a good cause: Students of Haque Academy take on truck art

Proceeds from works on display to go to True Worth Foundation.

KARACHI:

The Second Floor (T2F) was transformed into an avant-garde truck artist’s workshop on Saturday afternoon, as the students of Haque Academy displayed their take on what has become one of the most recognisable forms of art in the country.

Titled Pakaleidoscope, the exhibit by the department of visual arts at Haque Academy showed off creations inspired by truck art, including pottery, an acetate sheet using acrylics and work on canvas. The usual suspects - a large eye, a plane, a woman - that are depicted in the art on the trucks trundling through the country were all present in their Technicolour glory.

The work displayed was by students from grade 2 to grade 8. Reem Dhamee, the assistant director for special programmes at the school, said that the students were shown images of truck art and truck artist Haider Ali also visited the school.

Some of the truck art on display at an exhibition titled ‘Pakaleidoscope’ at the T2F. The artwork was made by students of the Haque Academy and the project took three months to complete. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS

The project, which took three months to complete, has culminated in at least a hundred pieces on display at T2F. Several pieces are on sale and the proceeds will go to the True Worth Foundation, said Dhamee.

“Students identified their national symbols, took ideas and used different surfaces to convey them,” said Sobia Amir, an art teacher at Haque Academy. “After learning about this in theory, they came up with individual ideas rather than being limited to the genre of truck art.”



The images on acetate, she said, had been conceptualised by the students, adding that the entire project required extensive planning.

Mrs Omar, whose 12-year-old daughter’s work had already been sold, was beaming. “This is really good and it is displayed so nicely,” she exclaimed. “It is a very emotional moment for me that the painting got sold!”

Richard, who has three daughters enrolled at Haque Academy, was bowled over. “I’m so impressed!”

Mrs Omar credited the school for the quality of the work and for exhibiting it so well. Amir said that the students were already excited about what they would do next, based on the extensive work and end product of Pakaleidoscope. But as they excitedly milled around and posed for photographs, it was their parents who looked the proudest.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2012.