Photos from TRANSIENT (video) series 2010.
The New York taxi cab is an icon of New York culture; the hustle and bustle of the city, the streets, and the city’s on-the-go inhabitants. But as artist Amir Baradaran points out, the taxi itself is a blaring yellow sign as the drivers inside, mostly minorities, remain unseen.
With this in mind, Baradaran has created a video installation series entitled, “Transient.” Comprised of short, 40-second video clips of what could be seen as the perspective of the driver, “Transient” draws a thoughtful picture of the driver in the taxi: the rear view mirror, the Plexiglas partitions, and the claustrophobia of the cab itself.
Baradaran has been challenging this ides of race and gender, and other artists, for sometime. He may be most known for his piece at the MoMA The other artist is present, in which he questions Marina Abramson’s work, the Artist is present.
“Transient,” organized by AME and Nazy Nazhand, will be aired in 6300 of New York’s taxi cabs for a one-week period. From September 9 through September 15, it will be viewed by an estimated 1.5 million passengers. Baradaran hopes to alleviate the temporary blindness of these passengers, challenge their routines, and hopefully “create a space of introspection.”
