| Of Taxis and Art |
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South African society is one of the most disparate in terms of the divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, those who have means, wealth and access to opportunity and those who don’t. The concept is bandied about regularly in the rhetoric of political speeches, swapped over dessert at many a social gathering and invariably becomes a buzz phrase every time some or other big-name development agency releases its thick, glossy report on the state of life in the emerging economies.
What are less explored are the implications of this divide for the way in which society operates on a day-to-day basis – how innovative solutions to everyday problems, born out of necessity, become interwoven with the cultural fabric of society. These manifestations become the idiosyncrasies that make our society unique and, in the right hands, empower us. What I am referring to here is how the notion of the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ plays itself out on the streets of our cities, namely between those who have cars and those who don’t, and, in a very interesting about turn, those who have access to public transport and those who don’t.
The South African taxi industry is estimated to have an annual turnover of R16.5 billion rand and provides 65 per cent of our population with transport on a daily basis. It is an industry that keeps our workforce moving and yet, up until very recently, it was an entirely self-funded and unregulated organ of civil society. As a non-nationalised system of transport, the taxis of our cities were not resourced with printed maps, colour-coded and numbered routes, and other such niceties. And as most road users will know, no well-signed taxi stops grace our busy roads. Every corner is a taxi-stop hell, as practically anywhere is a makeshift taxi stop and every pedestrian a potential fare!
An intricate system of gestures, zap signs and finger manipulations that would make even the most liberal person blush in any other context, is bandied about our streets with the ease and grace of mime artists. Communication zings about us at a rapid rate, the meanings of which are lost on a good portion of the population who are cocooned in their cars, narrowly avoiding rear-ending taxi drivers who are as nimble with their steering wheels as they are with their fingers. Enter Susan Woolf. A fine artist by profession, Woolf draws inspiration for her art from socio-political concerns. Her recent exhibition at Artspace, Jacob’s Ladder, looked at the power play of political figures and how society constructs and judges personas for its political figures, both revered and reviled. Woolf explains, ‘We put people on a pedestal as if they are demi-gods and are just as quick to see them at the bottom of the ladder when they turn out not to be perfect. We seldom give them credit for being human.’
Woolf is currently completing her cross-disciplinary doctoral studies (PhD) in anthropology and fine art at the University of the Witwatersrand. The topic of her work is ‘Taxi Hand Signs in Social Spaces’. Woolf is documenting the plethora of signals that make up the language of commuters all over South Africa. More than that, the artist has developed a system, or ‘alphabet’ if you will, that decodes these signals. This tool will enable literate, illiterate, local and foreign commuters, and even the blind, to be able to access public transport in South Africa. Woolf ’s artwork grew out of a curiosity that has at one time or another pricked the consciousness of every road user in South Africa who has observed this frenetic street-side dance: what does it all mean? ‘Despite being such a major form of transport and having been in operation for so many years, the system of signalling has remained undocumented,’ says Woolf. ‘In all my research, I have found almost no reference on the subject, and yet this language is used by almost eleven million people every day.’
The project required Woolf first to document the hand signs used for the various major routes in a city using photographs. Many individual squad-car members of taxi organisations, taxi executives and commuters were photographed showing the taxi hand signs for their routes. The artist then deconstructed the positioning of the hands into a series of hieroglyphic-like signs. But, I wonder, surely just documenting the hand signals would be easier and serve the same function? ‘The current system of signals is inaccessible to the blind,’ Woolf explains. ‘To create an equivalent of Braille code for this, simplified signs are needed.’ The project is supported by many taxi associations and the Greater Johannesburg Regional Taxi Council in pioneering the translation of this alphabet into Braille. By feeling the signals, blind commuters will know how to position their hands in order to get to their chosen destination.
Woolf has created 14 basic shapes that form all the taxi hand signs. The symbols are based on the use of the simplest of shapes as a precursor to teaching Braille to the blind and are made of raised, textured Braille dots that can be easily explained to blind commuters. Woolf’s project has already resulted in a booklet of most of the Gauteng signs and research into other major conurbations is underway. The public service element of this project envisions a booklet for each region that would be made available to anyone looking to access the taxi system. ‘We are working on several avenues of funding for this element of the project,’ Woolf comments. The project plan of course includes an ambitious visual art application. ‘I have been working toward an exhibition of sculptures using these signals as my point of departure,’ the artist says. This gallery show will form the precursor to a series of public installations and artworks that the artist believes should be located in public spaces around the city. The term ‘public art’ refers to works of art in any medium that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being accessible to all. What could be a more appropriate subject matter than providing the public with visual references that facilitate their day-to-day travel?
The attraction of marketing a brand to more than eleven million people, and the association with such an innovative project, would surely translate into serious brand equity for a forward-thinking organisation. Already, preliminary works from this project have been selected by the South African Post Office as designs for stamps that will be produced from May 2010. However, it is the implications that this project has for changing the way society interacts that offer the most exciting potential. At present, taxi transport is a black-dominated arena, operating for the majority of the population who cannot afford to buy, let alone maintain, a car.
While 30 000 new vehicles are apparently sold each month in South Africa, a major banking institution claims to have repossessed almost 30 per cent more vehicles than average last year due to the economic crisis. Coupled with the concerns of the green revolution, increasing parking challenges as the cities become more congested, crime and the sheer slog of navigating roads that are continually under construction, not to mention the impending arrival of the Johannesburg’s Gautrain, things are fast changing. The new divide will no longer be between those who drive fancy 4x4s and those who dream of these cars, but rather between those who can access the public transport system and those who cannot.
The ‘Taxi Project’ is an interesting marriage between the concerns of a visionary socio-political anthropologist, a dedicated visual artist and a committed academic. Susan Woolf may well have created a way to bridge a significant social divide and taken us a step closer to a society where giving someone the finger will all be part of a day’s work! |
