A Moveable Gallery: Amir Baradaran Uses Taxi TV Screens for Video Art

If you think all you get on TV in yellow cabs is the chatter of advertisements and news, think again. Through September 15, 6,300 of New York City's 13,237 taxi cabs will feature short videos from Iranian-born artist Amir Baradaran.

Baradaran's project "Transient" is a series of 40-second videos with something New Yorkers may find familiar but not expect when sitting behing the thick plexiglass of a cab: the direct, confrontational gaze of a cab driver looking directly at them from their rearview mirrors.

Baradaran hopes that New Yorkers with jangled nerves and jam-packed schedules will take a moment to think while watching his videos. "We don't pay too much attention to the taxi ride because in modern days it's always the destination that counts," he says. "If buddha was to take a cab in New York, perhaps his interpretation or his experience of the cab ride would be much different."