ART ON YOUR MIND?
Saddle up for India’s first show of motorcycle helmet art. Moto Art Show, a day-long exhibition at the Bombay Art Society in Mumbai today, isn’t your average biker convention. Don’t expect flaming skulls or leather jackets. Instead, there are 23 custom works by artistes from around the world — painters, jewellery designers, street artists and even a metalwork sculptor.
The art is unusual too — a landscape depicting a road trip through the hills, Cliff Richard song lyrics, hand-engraving, gold leaf, freehand pin-striping. All serve a common purpose: to get India, where motorbike safety is largely ignored, to see a helmet as an object of beauty, so it can be “worn proudly like a crown”. In 2017 alone, 36,000 two-wheeler users, riding helmetless, died in road accidents – an average of 98 a day. It’s easy to see why. Motorcycle use in the West is dominated by leisure groups who invest in safety gear – reinforced jackets, protective gloves and helmets that fit snugly to absorb shocks.
In India, most two-wheelers are used for transport — mommies ferrying kids to school, men commuting to work, delivery men and the like. Few bother with helmets. Those who do tend to buy cheap ones, ride without the straps on, or wear useless hardhats. Pillion riders – their fatality rate in an accident can be as high as 42% – usually don’t wear helmets.
It’s what prompted Niels-peter Jensen, an athlete and motorcycle designer, to start Helmets for India, an initiative to get riders to see helmets as ‘cool’. “You could fix any other bone, but people who’ve hurt their heads in an accident are never the same,” he says. “Your face, your knowledge, your memories, your emotion, your love ... it’s all in your head.”
He teamed up with Mallika Prakash, 38, a biker and hardware engineer-turnedpainter, to organise the Mumbai show. “Indians make tons of excuses when it comes to wearing safety gear,” Prakash “They’ll say they’re not going too far or too fast, they think accidents will happen to someone else. It doesn’t help that helmets are uncomfortable in our weather.” For Prakash, merging her art and biking interests seemed natural. She curated First of Its Name, a show of motorcycle-related art by 12 artistes, in Bengaluru last year. “Motorcycle art is work that is inspired by the joy of riding,” she says. “You try to capture the experiences, the views and freedom you have as a biker.”
To get a better sense of this, check out the helmet created by Ganesh Shinde at