Exhibit - The Taxi Project

It is with special thanks to Tate Liverpool that JLA was able to showcase The Taxi Project during 2008. JLA is also thankful to Bill Kelly of W A Kelly Taxis, Lockerby Road, Liverpool for the loan of the taxi cab.

Background

The Turner Prize consistently provokes discussion and debate on modern and contemporary art. Whilst the Prize took place in Liverpool in November 2007, the debate was played out in the public and private spaces of the city, not least in that hybrid of public-private space the taxi cab.

From June 2007, Tate Liverpool, situated at the historic Albert Dock, worked closely with taxi drivers from across Merseyside on The Taxi Project. Drivers participated in weekly discussion sessions in the galleries, engaging in heated debate on modern and contemporary art works in the Tate Collection. In the weeks leading up to the opening of Turner Prize 2007, sessions concentrated on the history of the Turner Prize, on controversy it is sometimes known to provoke and the nominees in last year's exhibition.

Armed with an invigorated knowledge of art and a thirst for questioning the very nature of the Turner Prize, the cab drivers took to the road, with cameras installed in their cabs, to initiate conversations about the Prize with their passengers. These exchanges, screened here in a fully working hackney cab, offer a snap shot of opinion and feeling in the city about the Prize, and about art and life in general in the run up to European Capital of Culture 2008. Passengers include members of the public, the nominees for 2007, curators, the press and others.

Tate Liverpool thanks Brian Bretherton and Stan Hicklin and also James Edgar and Graham Flood, and to Bill Kelly of W A Kelly Taxis, for their loan of the taxi whilst it was at Tate Liverpool.

Tate Liverpool would also like to thank Metquarter and Arts & Business for their generous support with the project.