As part of Spike in the City, Bristol based artist Kayle Brandon has undertaken a self initiated residency at inner-city taxi rank 'Dads Cabs' based in the parish of St Paul's.

The artist's initial interest in Dads Cabs grew out of a prosaic relationship – this being her taxi firm of choice - and the notion that this taxi rank could be likened to a cultural centre. Dads Cabs works within the public realm, providing social spaces (car/HQ) which present their passenger/audience with a frame by which to view the world. The conventions of the driver/passenger relation are well defined yet also have the potential of unexpected encounters via conversation, gaze and reflection.

The residency spanned over a 12 month period, across 2008-2009, out of which a new limited artist’s book work emerged. CAR 9 is publication which uses the taxi drivers’ cars as the method of distribution. The publication will be launched on October 082009 and will be freely available to any passenger of the Dads Cabs service to read during journeys and to take a copy if they so wish. Access is the same as any booking of a cab; simply call and ask for a driver who is distributing it.

CAR 9 is a mythical story, set in the interface between the urban city and the natural world. The story is a fantasy made out of the real conversations, observations and the personal experiences the artist went through during the residency period. Kayle Brandon has produced a psycho-geographical interpretation of how the taxi business, the road and territory surrounding the rank are manifested.

The story explores urban and natural archetypes; the Road, the Passenger, the Jungle and the relational threads between these points. The main character of the story is a Lion.

The world portrayed has a logic of transformation and of existing between things within it. It is story of living neither here nor there, of being made of two places, of changing from one element to another via industrial or natural processing, of things being named as something yet serving contrary purposes. The artist reconciles and plays with the states of confusion and contradiction inherent in the clash of natural and urban phenomena and the complexity of lives that are as layered and ever-changing as cities.

Like most mythical stories, this story is suitable for children and adults alike to read at different levels

Kayle Brandon Biography

Kayle Brandon is an Artist/researcher whose work is sited within the public, social realm. She predominantly works in collaborative and collective fields; a working method which informs much of her ethos around the making of art.

Brandon works in a variety of media; mapping and making guides out of explorations that investigate urban territory, making and distributing alternative/wild/feral produce and creating experimental social events. Her main areas of interest are in the relationships between the natural and urban worlds by physical contact, observation, self-guided exploration and collective experiences.

Recent projects include, Avon Canoe Pilot 2007, an urban exploration into Bristol's waterways resulting in a publication called the Avon Canoe Pilot. In 2009, ongoing project 'The drawing Exchange' culminated in a 10 day festival of social drawing events led by invited artists.