INTERVIEW Sep 2024 Pipeline and Slugtown Gallery Swap

Simal Rafique

A gallery exchange between Pipeline in London and non-profit Slugtown in Shieldfield, Newcastle-upon-Tyne crosses regional boundaries to foster a more nationally inclusive arts community in the UK. Slugtown presented the two-person offsite ‘Shoehorn’ this summer (12-27 July 2024) at Pipeline, an exhibition featuring work by London-based artist Hilda Kortei and Glasgow-based Rachel Adams, which investigated ideas of value, labour and the overlooked. Meanwhile in Shieldfield, Conor Roger’s solo exhibition ‘Renegade’, on view at Slugtown 19 July-3 August 2024, reclaimed derogatory concepts and transformed them into a symbol of defiance and strength. Writer and art historian Simal Rafique visited London to interview Tatiana Cheneviere, director of Pipeline and Slugtown co-directors Matt Antoniak and Max Lee to learn more about this refreshing dialogue between the two arts ecologies.

Simal Rafique: Please could you tell us briefly about the gallery exchange?

Tatiana Cheneviere: When I opened Pipeline in 2022 I worked with a Manchester-based artist who introduced me to other studio inhabitants in the city. Since then, some of them have exhibited in shows at the gallery. I prioritised artists from Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester, and offered residencies for them in London. I also travelled quite a lot to appreciate the different communities in these cities and considered how we can create more meaningful dialogue with them. For the gallery swap I loved Slugtown’s programme, which started at the same time as Pipeline, and I was excited by Newcastle’s developing art scene.

SR: Pipeline is the first London gallery to initiate such an exchange. What are you hoping might result from this interaction?

Tatiana Cheneviere: I have learnt a lot from Slugtown and the way that they operate as a non-profit. It has led me to reflect on how galleries interact with the community, the spaces that we provide for people to encounter art and the power of collaboration. London is a little saturated perhaps by how much is going on here, following market trends and not spending time outside of one’s comfort zone. Hopefully, this exchange inspires other galleries to collaborate and create more conversation across these different cities.

Max Lee: Slugtown’s approach has always been to bring artists that really excite us to the North-East region and exhibit the wealth of talent that exists in Newcastle, Gateshead and Teeside. For us, this opportunity was beneficial to network with Tatiana’s connections who perhaps haven’t visited Newcastle for a long time or never made the journey up North.

Tatiana Cheneviere: We also want to show people that you can practice and create movement without too much of a risk. These exchanges are very meaningful in promoting London’s infrastructure without permanently committing to opening a gallery full-time in a city that you don’t know. Swapping spaces, borrowing resources from other galleries is a healthy way of experimenting in the creative industry.

SR: Right now I am thinking about the previous government’s promise to ‘level up’ against regional inequalities by redistributing arts funding across the UK. Max, how has Newcastle responded to the initiative, and could you speak more to how it could improve the cultural landscape of the region?

Max Lee: The Newcastle art scene is small and intimate with lots of brilliant artists and organisations. Geographically, it is removed from big cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield, so I think we have had to form our own thing. Nowadays graduates aren’t moving to the capital as much because it is feasible to practice as an artist in Newcastle. For one, studios are more affordable and there are also local resources, like the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts.

Matt Antoniak: Everyone is very collegiate and supportive here. We want to make our art more accessible to people. We try through a variety of ways. For instance, Conor Roger’s solo-exhibition is very relevant to the space that we are based in at Slugtown.

Tatiana Cheneviere: Yes, for the exhibition Renegade Conor Rogers produced a site-specific work that responds to the regional history and landscape of Shieldfield. One of Slugtown’s previous uses was a pharmacy, so he undertook research of a new pharmacy there, took a pamphlet and made a painting on it called Healing (2024). Rogers often uses unconventional materials in his art, such as betting slips, rizla paper and drug baggies. The rest of his work also felt very aligned with the exchange and involved in similar discussions around labour, class dynamics and memory.

Max Lee: We were saying earlier that there is quite a nice link to Shoehorn, the exhibition here in London, as both the artists Rachel Adams and Hilda Kortei also use everyday materials, making subtle interventions that change the way that we look at art. So it’s been a happy accident that the shows are connected thematically.

SR: At the Fourdrinier, supporting emerging artists and writers from the North is very important to us. Has this been the case for the exhibiting artists at Pipeline and Slugtown?

Max Lee: Absolutely, the exchange involves emerging artists and that's a big focus for us at Slugtown: offering support and being the step change in their artistic careers, whether that's through connecting artists with the right people or realising ambitious exhibitions.

Tatiana Cheneviere: Supporting emerging artists from diverse regions has grown in importance to Pipeline since the gallery's beginnings. At first, I was interested to discover a wealth of talent in the North, many of whom had not yet exhibited in London but this quickly turned into an impulse to support them and meet their needs. I am aware of the platform Pipeline can provide being located in Central London and I'm keen to offer that to artists in the most effective way I can.

SR: Tatiana, I am interested in the comparison you made earlier about small galleries and emerging artists being more closely aligned than people realise. Could you elaborate on this further?

Tatiana Cheneviere: Through this initiative I have had a number of conversations with artists and galleries, trying to get a sense of what each needs or is missing. Of course, there are huge differences but to me, small gallerists and emerging artists have always felt more closely aligned than they initially looked. We are both looking for the same things: opportunity and visibility, meaningful collaborations.

SR: What does the future of this sort of partnership look like?

Tatiana Cheneviere: [Laughs] We don’t know yet.

Max Lee: But it’s been really promising speaking to people about this. There’s been a lot of interest in how this exchange will go forward. It’s encouraging to welcome visitors who have made the effort to come up to Newcastle to see the show. We hope that it might prompt others to follow suit and look at ways to collaborate in a more nationally inclusive art community.

Tatiana Cheneviere: In many ways it’s still a big research project as we want to truly understand feedback from artists, collectors and curators in both cities.

Max Lee: Also, as an artist who gets a show in a different city from where they are based it can sometimes be difficult to make the most out of an opportunity if you don’t have existing relations in that city. So the idea of it being a swap, the artists can hopefully benefit as much as the galleries by introducing them to a wider network. Those passing conversations at an opening or a brief introduction to someone at the show can be really useful in the future.