Curtains! as a title for this work refers as much to the end of the taxi’s life as a taxi, as to curtains as an aspect of homemaking or marking of the beginning and end of a theatrical performance.

Elspeth Owen, (adopting the persona/character of Material Woman) was literally 'in residence’ at Taxi Gallery for three weeks, and during this time she gradually transformed the taxi into her temporary home 'caparissonning'* it with materials, things, substances, fabrics, stuff, threads, patches ... many of which were donated by visitors as well as sent to her through the post.

The performance phase of this work was monitored 24/7 by a webcam on this site - and a full movie archive has been gathered.

*dictionary def. caparison: 1. horses's trappings 2. equipment, finery - from Spanish caparazon 'saddle-cloth

A MORE DETAILED ARCHIVE OF THIS WORK WILL BE ONLINE BY THE END OF JANUARY 2004

Elspeth Owen’s most familiar material is clay and her ceramic work has been widely shown in this country and in Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA and Wales. Museums holding her work include the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Kunstmuseum, Hamburg. A book about her pots, coming round again, designed in collaboration with her nephew, Webster Wickham, contains essays which call her work ‘odd...yet enjoyable,exhilarating, absurd and contemplative (Gillian Beer), ‘more anarchic and rougher’(Tanya Harrod) and ‘a lyrical sobotage of the conventional’(Edmund de Waal).

Since the time of the Women’s Peace Camp at Greenham Common, Elspeth has been interested in moving aside from making finished objects and into work where the passage of time, the live process is a key element. Long distance walking and the finding of temporary shelter have inspired photographic and performance experiments and collaborations.

Recent exhibitions include: How Do Women Walk? installation ,Cambridge Darkroom, 1992; Between Me and My Sister video 1993; Open End, performance, Banff Center for the Arts, Canada,1994; Artist’s Journeys, installation, Bury St Edmunds, 1996; The Weeping Woman, installation, Clare Hall, Cambridge, 2001; Without History, as a member of in situ theatre company in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 2001; Kettles Yard Open 2002, Give me a Call photo-essay (with Anna Grimshaw); The Cradle of Civilisation, installation, Contemporary Applied Art, 2003.

Elspeth writes; "Tender, direct, resilient, with a thin skin: that is how my work touches you. To sustain this means remaining open to the emotions and sensations of an ordinary life. I keep slipping between categories - life, art, therapy, play, ritual - and find that I’m usually in more than one at a time, with something up my sleeve!"