Join us for an evening exploring the importance of finding community and a sense of place, with special screenings of Harry Lawson’s Stepney Western, Lewis Khan’s The Leavers and Maite de Orbe’s film La Tripiadera. 

Moving from Stepney Bank Stables in Newcastle, to a secondary school in Vauxhall, London, and the neighbourhoods of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, the films capture what it means to be young today and the sense of belonging that emerges when you find your community. 

The screenings will be followed by a conversation with the filmmakers, curator Rosie Coleman Collier, and ICA Talks & Events Curator Hannah Geddes.

Film Synopses

Harry Lawson’s experimental and participatory documentary Stepney Western reimagines the Western genre, recasting Byker as the Wild West. Made in collaboration with a group of young inner-city horse riders from Stepney Bank Stables in Newcastle, the film offers an intergenerational portrait of the community, tracing the North East’s social and industrial histories while challenging dominant narratives of regeneration. 

The Leavers is an ongoing photographic and moving-image project by London-based artist Lewis Khan. Eight years ago, Khan happened to pass by as throngs of teenagers, bow-tied, glossed and glittering, spilled out of their secondary school prom. The scene, charged with elation, exhaustion, giddiness and hope, inspired an ongoing project. Returning year after year to the same South London school prom, Khan documents a moment that is at once ordinary and profound: a pivotal rite of passage that becomes a ritual of youth. 

In the Dominican Republic, freestyle is central to the island’s culture: a survival tool for its youth and a way to assert Caribbean pride, as the music scene makes its mark globally. ICA artist in resident Maite de Orbe’s La Tripiadera follows two artists, Numenosis and Dinamita, as they navigate Santo Domingo, moving between rap battles and their own neighbourhoods. The film reflects on how their cultural roots make this scene so distinctive on the world stage. 

Bios

Lewis Khan is a photographic artist born and raised in London. Working with stills and motion, his portrait based practice is a study of emotion, relationships and belonging. With a keen eye for observation and a personal interest in community as a driving force in his work. Lewis’ practice both acts as social commentary, and immerses him physically in the places, groups, and relationships pictured in his photographs and films.

Maite de Orbe is a Spanish, London-based artist working with photography, performance and moving image. Combining these media, their practice is focused on the complexity of identity making, touching on sexuality, gender and queerness, belonging, migration and community. Working collaboratively with dissident communities, de Orbe’s practice uses a visual documentary language at first that then lures into fantasy and world making, by prioritising love, intimacy and sensuality.

De Orbe is a Barbican Young Visual Artist alumni (2021-23), their work has been shown at PORT Magazine, The Financial Times, The Face, Dazed, Metal Magazine and has been shown at Frieze Art Fair, Barbican Centre, ICA, Reference Point, The Horse Hospital, and Bermondsey Project Space among others.

Harry Lawson is an artist and documentary filmmaker from Sunderland. He lives and works in Newcastle. His approach is deeply collaborative, prioritising long-term engagement with participants. Projects develop slowly, often over several years embedded within a community. Through film, installation and public art, Lawson’s work focuses on how communities are seen and how they see themselves.

He has been supported by BFI Doc Society, Arts Council England, and Wellcome Trust, and featured in publications such as The Guardian, Art Monthly, e-flux, British Journal of Photography, The Face, and The Quietus. Recent screenings and exhibitions include Now Instant (Los Angeles), Grand Union (Birmingham), GSFF (Glasgow), NCA (Newcastle), BFMAF (Berwick), Chemist Gallery (London), Zumzeig (Barcelona) and Floating (Berlin).

Rosie Coleman Collier works with artists on exhibitions, public programmes, events, and publications. She is Assistant Curator at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Previously she led public programmes and publicity at MACK, where she curated and produced talks, workshops, screenings, and events. She has also worked in editorial and research roles at Thames & Hudson and Tate, and collaborates with the Athens-based visual art publisher Void. She is based in Newcastle upon Tyne.