Speaking to Mirando on how she became interested in the concept of lorry art, she explained that when she was a graphic design student, she used to travel back and forth from Negombo to college on the bus. This was long before the highway was invented, so she would be stuck on the road for a few hours, which led her to observe her surrounding environment. That was the time in which she began noticing these colourfully painted lorries.
The subject captivated her so much that she chose to do her dissertation on it. “It was the 3D letters that drew me to it, but also if you take a second look, you will see that there’s so much art and culture like little motifs that surround us in our temples and churches that are incorporated into one lorry.”
In a typically painted lorry, Mirando described that one would see the owner of the lorry’s initials and the name of the business, and the letters are structured three-dimensionally. Sri Lanka’s largest vegetable wholesale market is located in Dambulla, so the roads in the area often see trucks carting the goods to market (mainly Colombo). These factors make the area perfect for truck watching and observing traditional samplings of Sri Lanka’s truck art.
History of lorry art
Truck art is a popular form of regional decoration in South Asia, with Pakistani, Indian, and of course, Sri Lankan trucks featuring elaborate floral patterns and calligraphy. Lorry art is a long-standing aspect of Sri Lankan culture. In the early stages of lorry art, Mirando informed us that these artists had to work with black and white, and if they were lucky, a few more standard colours due to the lack of paint at the time. So it was a real challenge for the artists to make their creations stand out and look interesting but despite the lack of colours, they did a great job and the art was appealing to everyone that laid eyes on it. Later on, after more colours were imported to the country, the designs became more creative and colourful.
Currently, in the digital era, Mirando observed that lorry owners are beginning to opt for stickers instead of hand-painted art, so the tradition seems to be sadly dying out. The stickers don’t have the feel of the culture, nor the layers that these artists painstakingly hand paint, but the concept of lorry art still remains. “These digitised stickers fall short of the real thing, even though the art can be replicated. It is very sad to see that such a long-standing culture seems to be fading.” She observed that because of digitisation, the artists at the workshops are losing their jobs, so the fading of this form of art not only kills tradition but also affects the livelihood of many.
Mirando explained that each lorry has its own elements, but one can’t identify their location of origin or what culture they are from, simply from the typography and the colours and elements used, adding: “We can’t identify the location simply from the style and culture. Because we don’t most often know where the lorry is from and or who decorated it. It’s only indicative of what the culture might be and where the lorry might have been painted.
“You find different illustrations that are aligned with different religions and different ethnicities and communities that are in our country and sometimes you can see a mix of them together,” she commented, adding that it is possible that a lorry has Jesus Christ on it, but is also adorned with Hindu elements. She also commented that usually, if a lorry belongs to a merchant of Hindu origins, the paintings are likely to be more vibrant and use more colour than if a lorry belongs to a merchant from a Sinhalese background, but it is the lorry owner that has the final say on what goes on his lorry. It is clear that lorry art is a beautiful celebration of cultures.
She also informed us that if a lorry is from the coast, the art will feature coastal elements. There are so many other workshops scattered all over the country too. Jaffna is a very popular destination for lorry painting workshops, so there are more colourful and vibrant cultural elements.
As Sri Lankans, we have grown up seeing these colourful trucks while travelling on roads. There is no denying the fact that Sri Lanka is a land of rich heritage and culture that is filled with colours.