Proposal: My White Cube is My Taxi

So I propose a travelling exhibition in the form of a taxi covered in Bumper stickers signed by individual artists. The fee for this exhibition will be covered by the Taxi fare. The taxi will be based in London. Consumers will be unaware of the exhibition until they enter the taxi where an exhibition catalogue or a text explication will be at their disposal. In essence the work is critiquing that of the white cube space and the concept of the artist as celebrity along with an element of escapism in the form Fluxus and Situationism due to the random generative possibilities they provide.

Combining Philippe Thomas' idea of the Readymade as signed by its owner with Michele Bernstein's comment, "Only taxis allow true freedom of movement. By travelling varying distances in a set time, they contribute to automatic disorientation. Since taxis are interchangeable, no connection is established with the "traveller" and they can be left anywhere and taken at random. A trip with no destination, diverted arbitrarily en route, is only possible with a taxi's essentially random itinerary".

I propose an exhibition that does not avert the commodity and capitalism but embraces it. By using Situationism as an overtly political medium in order to escape the powers of the signs (media) that subconsciously guide us through this supposed non-reality. I hope that the generative qualities of this moving exhibition will somehow provide escapism and allow a 'true freedom of movement'. Constructing a situation such as this will no doubt raise numerous problems:

1. Do I want the taxi to be known as a white cube/alternative space or allow the passenger to experience the true freedom of movement – but then how can they experience a true freedom of movement when they have a set starting point and destination in their journey.
   
2. Maybe the emphasis should be on the taxi as an everyday object experiencing this sense of freedom thus blurring the distinction between art and life in conjunction with the aims and ideals of the Fluxus group!
   
3. By embracing that of capitalism through taxi fares it would contradict the original notion I have posed, i.e. that the Taxi should provide a form of escapism but then if the passenger has a set destination and pick up point it will make no difference to them if they had to pay or not.
   
4. As the artist Manzoni inscribed his signature on a random person's show what is not to say that I cannot get artists to sign (in the form of a bumper sticker) the white taxi thereby undermining the role of the white cube to an extent. What I mean by undermining the white cube would mean by-passing the artists work, getting straight to the popularity of the artist and questioning what the consumers go to see when they visit a gallery. By getting artists to sign the exterior of the taxi would in some way propel the taxi into the realm of the art market – but would pose various issues including the deterioration of the art.
   
5. One key difference with this exhibition unlike the others is that the entry price is varying and there is no escaping our commodified/capitalist culture. There is only escape of the real for the taxi as an object.
   
6. How will the consumer know that they are in a work of art or will they see the exterior of the taxi as purely advertising? As Kaprow states in Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life, 'Those wishing to be called artists, in order to have some or all of their acts and ideas considered art, only have to drop an artistic thought around them, announce the fact and persuade others to believe it. That's advertising. As Marshall McLuhan once wrote, "Art is what you can get away with".'
   

I can see how contradictory this proposal may appear but this is precisely the problems avant-garde artist's face. By amalgamating the 'object' i.e. that of the artist's signature I hope to escape the notion of display as a form of fetishism by creating a situation. 'The "constructed situation" was defined as a moment of life, concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organisation of unitary environment and the free play of events.' – Simon Ford. It could in effect be seen as similar to that of The Naked City, a creation which was credited to Guy Debord.