Art is found in the unlikeliest of places: on trash bins, on attics, and if you're in India, on the back of trucks. If you have ever travelled the dusty highways which crisscross the length and breadth of this diverse country, you've definitely seen the big trucks which rumble across it night and day. And often, from the back.
While the ubiquitous “Horn Ok Please” is almost always the most common signage we see, it is often also accompanied by motifs and typography in bright paints. Over the time, this has developed into a dedicated art form, truck art, which isn't only aesthetically pleasing but also symbolizes the sentiments and emotions, both personal and religious, of close to 10,000 painters, drivers and designers across India.
In 2012, Shantanu Suman, for his degree project at University of Florida, began researching this art form. He spent his entire summer traveling with a couple of friends across India, taking photos and writing notes. What resulted was a short documentary, called Horn Please, dedicated to the art, and later showcased in prestigious film festivals around the world.
