NCA - Gallery One & Two

Saturday 15th March — Sunday 27 April 2025

open: Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 5pm

Launch event: Saturday 15th March, 3-7pm

Newcastle Contemporary Art (NCA) is delighted to announce Stepney Western, an exhibition comprising a new film by Newcastle-based artist / filmmaker Harry Lawson and archival photography from Richard Blosse, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dean Chapman, Mik Critchlow, Martine Franck, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Markéta Luskačová, Tish Murtha, Davey Pearson and more. At the heart of Stepney Western is Lawson’s experimental documentary, made over the past two years in collaboration with a group of young inner city horse riders from Stepney Bank Stables in Newcastle. It is loosely centred on their Alternative Provision programme — a unique alternative for young people in Newcastle who struggle in mainstream education settings.

Recasting Byker as the Wild West, Stepney Western sits at the porous boundary between fact and fiction combining recontextualised iPhone clips shot by the riders and archival material from North East Film Archive with Lawson’s own footage. What emerges is an intergenerational portrait of this community, incorporating fragments from the 2005 CBBC series The Stables (made with teenagers at Stepney twenty years ago). Stepney Western also features an original theme tune by local musicians Jayne Dent and Richard Dawson and cutting-edge sound design by Omar McCutcheon aka Batu.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen - Ragman’s Horse and Cart by Union Road (Byker), 1970. ©Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen - Courtesy of AmberSide Collection.

A series of free workshops for young people will run throughout the public programme at NCA. Audience members of all ages are invited to draw/paint/sketch a film poster for our rolling display in the foyer (template designs by the young people from Stepney, facilitated by NewBridge Print Studio). Lawson has collaborated with Foundation Press to produce a limited-edition publication to accompany the exhibition. This takes the form of a revival of Byker Phoenix—a much-loved community magazine from the 1970s and 1980s — that weaves contemporary reflections with historical narratives. This special edition features new writing by Alex Niven an Kathryn Scanlan, alongside original Byker Phoenix articles.

Stepney Western will extend its reach beyond NCA throughout 2025. A large-scale public artwork will be installed at Byker Metro Station, while an abridged version of the exhibition, including the film and archival photography, will be presented at a local arts festival in late March. 

Harry Lawson, Stepney Western (2025). ©Harry Lawson - Courtesy of the artist and Newcastle Contemporary Art