AIDF grant for Abigail Conway’s residency with Junction Arts Festival in Australia leads to the premiere of RIDE
Abigail Conway’s RIDE (a motorcycle meditation) premiered at Junction Arts Festival in Launceston, Tasmania 2 – 6 September 2015. The research and development phase in Launceston was supported by the Artists' International Development Fund (AIDF).
Conway and team worked with eight local riders on this project. RIDE took audiences on journeys out of town and into the Tasmanian bush, riding pillion on the back of motorcycles. Audience members listened to soundtracks incorporating snippets of interviews with the riders interspersed with sound and music as they travelled through the landscape. Conway plans to continue the project in different places across the world.
AIDF is jointly funded by the Arts Council England and the British Council. It offers early stage development opportunities for individual freelance and self-employed artists (including creative producers, publishers, curators and editors) based in England to spend time building links with artists, organisations and/or creative producers in another country.
RIDE was commissioned by Junction Arts Festival. It was developed in collaboration with Melanie Wilson and George Tomlinson, with further support from Forest Fringe, Battersea Arts Centre, Shoreditch Town Hall, Live Art Development Agency and Cambridge Junction. The motocylce riders were Chris Brooks, Robbie Tynan, Graeme Dobson, Grantley Jepson, Tony Holman, Allan Roark, Scott Penney and Danny Penney.
