Guerilla Performance #1 Camberwell

Firstly I need to say that these performances were as much research trips for myself and the performers as they were performances, in fact more so. I saw these as opportunities for us to act like sponges and wanted them to be moments of group appropriation. In a way they are akin to the method I employ in gathering new material for my own work, the mudhead dance specifically. My work is a entirely hinged on appropriation of real moments, character and gesture from which the work grows. The guerrilla performances were an experiment to see if this process could be applied live to a group of performers and both an expanded version of my own research but also as a work in their own right.

The stage was set...

This first guerrilla performance proved to be challenging. Why? Well put simply, numbers. Staging any kind of flash mob (I hate this reference, but its hard to avoid when your springing impromptu performances on the street) with three people is hard. Anyway, the challenge was set, for reasons out of my control. As it turned out it, it kinda felt appropriate that something which ended so big started so small.

The performers were given the task of appropriating ways of looking for a duration which relates to the proximity of appropriated party. Put another way, the performers first chose one of themselves to be the instigator. As a group they would start dispersed across the street. The instigator would then choose an unknowing target who was in the process of looking (this can be for a fleeting moment or a prolonged pose) and assume the same pose as him/her for a proximity related count. If for example, the subject is across the street the performer holds the pose for a count of 200 seconds. If they are stood directly adjacent to their subject the pose becomes a snapshot. Its important to point out, we were not trying to be wacky or silly, were were not trying to take the piss, this was something that was not aimed at being threatening or invasive, but something liminal. Another key part of this micro-performance is the ability of the performers to time their appropriations to co-incide with each other. A simple choreography in essence, only made difficult by the need to be discreet.

The aim of this performance was not to create obvious aberrations, but to create liminal moments of double take, to bring a renewed attention and focus to the overlooked and unimportant and to place an emphasis on looking.

The other main objective was that the material created would feed back into the ensuing final performance, so we wanted to develop a vocabulary of movement and looking.