If you love riding motorcycles and the life that goes with it, then it’s that time of the year when all roads lead to Goa. The 5th edition of the famed India Bike Week motorcycling festival will be held on November 24 and 25. There will be loads of like-minded petrolheads and even more mind-numbing machines, lots of music and heart-pumping adrenaline-filled competitions to take part in, but this year promises to take it all a notch higher. Motorcycle Grand Prix legend Freddie Spencer will be there, along with big names like Leslie Porterfield, Dhruv Dholakia, Rohit Roy and Ram Kapoor among others. It’s bound to be another year where the passion for motorcycles will be soaring high over the event’s weekend. If even all that sounds too regular for your tastes though, there’s something else at IBW that has us excited!
If there’s one thing we like as much as motorcycles themselves, it’s motorcycle art. Moto art is a genre on the rise, with artists, connoisseurs and collectors all coming together. Probably the biggest highlight of IBW 2017 is the Moto Art Project that brings three of the country’s most renowned artists of the field on the same platform. There will be moto art on display, interactions with the artists, and even live sketching sessions as part of the programme, which sets the entire peripheral visual tone for the event. As artist Prankur Rana puts it, “Motorcycles are the most aesthetically attractive machines that ever existed.”
Everyday art
Rana has been fascinated with motorcycles ever since he was a kid, and started sketching them in 2015. The Delhi-based artist rides a customised Royal Enfield, and his illustrations are simple, yet beautiful and dynamic at the same time. Rana draws inspiration from his daily life and says, “The ideas just come and go, every time I’m riding alone. Then I just express them radically on a sheet of paper!”
The thrill of the ride
Then there’s George Mathen’s. Armed with his stagename ‘Appupen’, his style is more graphic novel than clean illustration. In fact, Appupen is widely known for his book series titled Halahala — a story that revolves around an imaginary parallel universe. His motorcycle art is influenced heavily by his graphic novel style, and the resulting pieces are surreal, dark and iconic. “The biking world is very pronounced on the technology, the attitude, the image and the gear. I like to concentrate on the ride — the actual experience and feeling of it. This series is a totally new range of drawings that explore ethereal realms of gods and demons in Halahala . It is a new style and territory for my art,” he said, speaking about what people can expect to see from him at the India Bike Week. Appupen hopes his art at IBW will open fans up to a larger spectrum of the art world, and spread the message for not just himself, but for other artists around the country as well.
Design language
Much of the visual design you will get to see at IBW this year has been worked upon by Sanskar Sawant. The street artist is best known for his ‘Three Wheel Vibe’ project, that completely transformed regular autorickshaws across India into rolling pieces of art.
With the MotoArt Periphery Project, Sawant has aimed to bring a bunch of artists and illustrators together to work on a visual style in tune with their individual proficiencies. “Collaboration has made life simple for us. We get to work within our comfort zone and it satisfies our subconscious. We all expect to be seen for our work at IBW and get future work opportunities showcasing what we do,” he feels.
