BBDB is a performance art collective established by James King. We meet every Friday in Derry for one hour to make improvised collective performances in public spaces.
I see this as my studio work. Sometimes I am figuring out an idea, action, or phrase or developing on from previous work. Often it is a need to express feelings and ideas that I have no language for except through my body. If I am lucky I can fall into a state of flow and allow the work to make itself. The presence of other performers usually influence the rhythm of the work and as we perform the energy flows between us so that we can create something quite unexpected.
Perhaps the only downside of this practice is that there is rarely photographic evidence of it’s existence. In those beautiful moments of flow we are so focused on the action that no-one takes a picture. The image above is by the photographer Jordan Hutchings. We do however discuss the themes or ideas we had been working on after the performance. I am very grateful to James King who has kept this practice up over the ten years I have known him.