Them[selves]
Video installation, 1998 / 14 min / 2 floating screens 300 x 250 cm (each)
I filmed Them(selves) with 11 taxi drivers, including some who had recently immigrated to Canada. I sought them out in the dispatchers at four in the morning and in the afternoon, just when the shifts were changing. This was the most extreme situation in all my Living Pictures...
People did not want me hanging around there. In the first place, the owner asked me how much I wanted to buy heads for, then, very violently, he suggested I pay in kind! In fact I only managed to infiltrate that little world thanks to a former female taxi driver.
In the Ryerson Studio in Toronto they let their hair down, and were extremely tense. Because of the situation, I could only film part of their faces. So, to fill in the gaps, I filmed the napes of their necks in a second phase. During the filming three of them tumbled to the floor several times because of the time spent standing, which was too long. The pace of their work, with no holidays or days off, gives rise to muscular disorders.
I was really pleased to see them all turn up for the opening. The meeting between them and the art world was not all roses. A real moment of infiltration: invading museums with Models who were never invited.