Drift Tricks (2024-ongoing)

Drift Tricks is a skateboarding, art, and community project made for and in the city of Plymouth. Our aim was to transform Civic Square, Plymouth into a playground of creativity and playfulness, with contemplation around community resilience in the face of climate crisis. The project is a collaboration between myself and Bedir Bekar, with the support and input of curators Lucy Elmes (Take-A-Part), and Ben Borthwick (Karst Gallery). This initiative sought to introduce skateable/playable sculptures into the urban fabric.

The process for creating these playable/skateable sculptures was participatory, involving the PRIMEdesign youth commitee. I imagined a fictional future scenario in which an extreme weather event had blown down the iconic butterfly-shaped roof of the Civic Centre, crash landing it to the ground. Together we conducted a workshop with the PRIMEdesign youth committee. We began with thinking about the effects of climate change on our cities, and talked about what it means to be resilient and inclusive. We imagined that creative recyclers of the city had refashioned the broken roof pieces (along with the trunk of a fallen tree) into objects for play. The PRIMEdesign youth commitee helped came up with ideas for what these shapes could look like, and then Bedir turned those ideas into the designs of our sculptural pieces.

Images courtesy of Take-A-Part and Dom Moore

Activating the sculptures was always part of their installation. In UK city spaces where activity is usually defined through social codes, it’s not always easy for people to engage in free play. We also wanted to make sure that they were used by a diverse range of people - on wheels and on their feet - so I devised a series of workshops to accompany the sculptures which explore free movement and urban choreography (both physical and imagined), which are suitable for any and all bodies.

Drift Tricks was initially developed through a commission that was supported by funding from Plymouth Culture, but in the process of completing the commission we faced many problems with installing the work as planned in Civic Square, due to a shifting landscape of health and safety requirements put forward by Plymouth Council. Safety measures were agreed and then rejected. The council’s final proposed safety measures largely prevented public engagement with the sculptures and we felt that this jeapordised the function of the artwork to such an extent that we sadly decided to pull out of the exhibition. At that point in time the sculptures had been fabricated. Sustainability of the sculptures had always been part of their design. They were never intended as a one-off artwork that would be scrapped at the end of the project. We envisaged that the sculptures would have other lives beyond Plymouth, and since then, we've been touring them.

Even though they were made for and in Plymouth, their message about inclusive public realm, play, and urban resilience is one that resonates across the UK and beyond. If you’d like to exhibit Drift Tricks in your city, town, gallery or other space, get in touch: daniabulhawa@gmail.com

Below are details from Drift Tricks travels…

Gloucester, Kings Square (2026)

We were commissioned by Take-a-Part and Chispa CIC to co-create two new sculptures for the city of Gloucester, in collaboration with skater communities in the city, and to activate the sculptures through a series of four workshops. The new sculptures - collectively called Drift Tricks: Tidelines - consisted of a climbable wooden structure referencing ship masts, an overturned boat with the addition of rails and a ramp, and a series of raised concrete circles, referencing the stepping stones that used to be a feature of the square.

Heavy storms across Gloucestershire have flooded the city centre and fragments of Gloucester’s ship building past have drifted into King’s Square. As the water drains away, the fragments elicit stories of Gloucester’s past. Skaters and creative movers of the city joined together and began recycling and repurposing the left-over fragments into playable, skateable sculptures for all.  All this creative work has had a ripple effect, causing people to reflect on their present and future. People are wondering, how we can make play a part of our everyday lives? How can we invite more people to play? What is Gloucester’s climate ecology? And what can creative movers like skateboarders in Gloucester teach us about adaptation and resilience?  Come and play with us.

Between Aug 17 and 22, the new Drift Tricks: Tidelines sculptures were presented and exhibited in the square alongside our previous two Drift Tricks sculptures. During that week they were played on by a wide variety of people, using a whole range of different sorts of equipment. At the end of the week, the Tidelines sculptures were relocated to their new home at Gloucester skatepark, whilst our original Drift Tricks sculptures are awaiting their next drifting adventure.

Images by Cara Gaskell.

The Children’s Art School, Huddersfield (2025)

In July 2025, Drift Tricks spent a month in Huddersfield at The Children’s Art School’s year long Maker Space Gallery in the Piazza Centre (images by Daniel Johnson).

The Box, Plymouth (2025)

Drift Tricks returned to Plymouth for a short event on 6-7th June as part of the Rolling Together Symposium, organised by Take-A-Part at The Box.

Images courtesy of Take-A-Part and Dom Moore

Leeds Art Gallery (2024)

Leeds Art Gallery selected the work (presented alongside Skatepark Allyship) in their exhibition Found Cities, Lost Objects, curated by Lubaina Himid. The sculptures were exhibited from Jan - April 2024 for gallery visitors to play on and during their installation Welcome Skatestore and local skateboarder, Ro Elliott faciliated some skateboard sessions with local groups of children and young people. The following video edit was created by Josh Hallett, Leeds skateboarder and filmmaker (Inside Story Video).