… the car breakers arrived 7.30am to hoist the Taxi over the hedge …. some of the neighbours brought their toast and tea outside to watch it, somewhat inelegantly, make its final journey over the hedge coming to rest in the garden. This was April 2002, and for several months the Taxi operated simply as an object of curiousity … occasionally passers by would stop me to ask “How did you get it in there?” It continues to be that some people notice this conundrum immediately whereas others need it pointing out.

The gallery has been open for a week ... I've noticed that people walking by have begun to cross over to the other side of the street …. wanting to avoid this strange thing that has appeared in their street? this is going to be a long conversation to get going .... I'm going to have to be patient.

I’d emailed out publicity for the opening of Taxi Gallery to a wide list of press and other contacts and Ray Miller and Deborah Jones from the Cambridge Licensed Hackney Cab Office at Cambridge City Council called round one morning a few days before the opening – they were just passing they said and were so excited by the idea that they wanted to see it for themselves …. they continue to be supportive and involved … but have never come to see an actual show …. Ray was the first contributor of an acrostic for the Resolution show in January 2003 …. Maybe they’ve called round when I’ve been out ….?

The Taxi had stood in the garden for 4 months before opening as gallery – people had got used to it but probably assumed it was just a slightly unusual way of storing an off – road vehicle …. So when I put up the gallery sign I was aware that it might possibly attract a different kind of attention and that the strangeness might provoke aggression. Kids round here have very little to do, the Youth Club and Scout Hut next door are regularly burgled and vandalised. I’m still a relative stranger in the neighbourhood having moved in less than a year ago. I’d put various measures in place, gravel, an alarm on the taxi and a movement responsive security light but still the possibility for a mischievious or aggressive response was still there ….. it hasn’t happened – no spray cans, no tyres let down, no scratching or smashing …. Nearest to it was an egg thrown at the Taxi on Halloween and a half hearted attempt at stealing the fairy lights I’d clipped around the sign at Christmas …. For many months this lack of vandalism is the most tangible positive acknowledgement of Taxi Gallery that I’ve received from the immediate neighbourhood.

This project connects for me with my preoccupation with making work within non-art spaces in dialogue with ‘non-art’ audiences (if there can be such a thing!), with an interest in site-specificity, with the everyday, with participatory frameworks, with conversation as a means of gift exchange between artist, artwork and viewer. For some time I’ve been wanting to bring my practice closer to home, to stitch it closer into my everyday life, to create moments of conversation within a community that include and involve those who I live alongside, conversations which are in part about what I am doing ‘here’ rather than ‘there’ or elsewhere. Taxi Gallery is integral to my practice not a sideline.

Some teenage girls are gathered around the sign reading the notice – I go out to talk to them, they’re bemused, they don’t really ‘get” it – I’ve tried to use accessible and plain language without being patronising – I explain that I’m using the Taxi as an unusual kind of art gallery – I’m shocked when one of them asks “what is a gallery?” – this provides me with a quite different base line starting point for the conversation I’m trying to engage in with my local audience. I had (wrongly) assumed that at least most people would have an idea about what a conventional art gallery is.

Where did the idea come from? Lots of people ask me this and there’s an easy (flip) answer and one that is more truthfully enmeshed in the development of my practice as an artist. I see Taxi Gallery as central to my practice it is not a diversion/distraction or a life support activity. As part of my collaboration with cris cheek under the name Things Not Worth Keeping we toured (as a travelling exhibition) the Millenium Collection of things not worth keeping to Car Boot Sales across the country. We wanted an unusual vehicle for the tour – something that would stand out as being a bit different within the context of Car Boot Sales and bought an old Blue London Taxi which we converted to include a display cabinet in place of the rear fold down seats. The Taxi was a real hit on the tour – people enjoyed getting into and looking at the exhibition and it soon became a conversational space that seemed to us to have real potential for other kinds of artworks. I inherited the Taxi when the tour ended and used it as my personal vehicle until it finally broke down – during this period I was offered (at a bargain price) another Taxi - same model but black this time and in much better condition (Coachwork/interior etc) it was not roadworthy and for some time I stored it in a Garage nearby. I moved to Stanesfield Rd in January 2002 and the combination of the front garden space and the house’s public/private location ( lots of passersby/happening upon audience as well as immediate neighbours) made the idea of locating the Taxi as a gallery in the garden seem a realistic one.

A friend who works in press and PR gave me a really useful list of press, radio and TV contacts which I email each month. The response to the first press release was promising – a feature in the Cambridge Evening News, local radio interviews and a regular listings in the various Cambridge based What’s On mags. I contacted the periodical Private Hire and Taxi Monthly and they have run several photo features of various shows. BBC Online ran a homepage feature. Desmond Brett’s show Roof Rack attracted national press attention and also a short feature on Anglia TV. Artists Newsletter have finally picked up on the project and are running a feature in November 2003. The publicity has, amongst other things, led to my making contact with Jason Brown of Cab Gallery http://www.cabgallery.com/, Russell of the Vintage London Taxi Association www.osfn.org/britishcabs/ and the person responsible for www.not4hire.co.uk called by in his Taxi called Genevieve whilst I was away on holiday – they left a note saying they’d called – it was a shame that I missed finding out their name – I’ve emailed them hopefully they’ll get back in touch. I like the License to Lurk section of their website which is in a similar territory to my postcard project – documenting the various manifestations of the iconic image of the London Taxi from mugs to t -shirts.