Liv Janmaat on Main-line

By Annie Watkins

Still from You’ve (never) been here before, 2020, Rob Terrestrial

Annie Watkins: Hi Liv, thanks so much for agreeing to have a conversation. I'm excited to hear more about your project!

Liv Janmaat: No problem, thanks for inviting me. 

AW: Could you start off by telling us a little about yourself, your newly established project Main-line, and how you went about setting it up? 

LJ: My practice and research revolves a lot around pedagogy, senses of belonging and exploring arts engagement and participation as tools to support communities and promote social change; I’m also a resident artist in a Nottingham City primary school. 

I launched main-line as a self-initiated placement, a space for the ongoing and interdisciplinary conversation between place, people, and identity, exclusively exhibiting creatives from or based within the East Midlands region. Most galleries bring in artists from all over the world and don’t show local artists, so I wanted to counteract that and show off the talent that’s already here. I also wanted to make sure that the exhibitions, residencies, events, and all that were all free to access; my biggest aim is to support and encourage easier mobility, accessibility, and arts participation. 

AW: That’s so great. What inspired you to begin an organisation that works solely with artists in the East Midlands? 

LJ: I’m a massive believer in taking what you’ve learnt and bringing it back home. Studying at Central Saint Martins opened my eyes even more as to how London-centric the arts are, so I knew I wanted my product to serve my community back home. 

AW: That's so true of other art centres worldwide too; people feeling the need to leave their hometowns in favour of places like New York, London, Berlin etc. to have the chance of “making it” in the art world. 

I think often when people hear terms such as community engagement, participation and art they think of low quality work and school projects. You’ve done a great job of creating a gallery that upholds excellence, engages a local audience, and supports and encourages local creatives. How do you see this progressing into the future? 

LJ: Thinking of art in terms of high and low isn't useful either, and it affects how people interact with art. Who gets to decide whether or not what you're viewing is shit or not? I've gone to exhibitions and galleries where what I've seen definitely wasn't of any value. 

We need to stop bashing local people and seeing them as common or uninterested or whatever, they're literally your audience. What do they want to see? What does your audience look like? 

main-line is going to be my practice once I'm back at CSM and I've got quite a few exhibitions planned for the rest of 2021. I'm focusing on expanding it as well - publishing texts, hopefully organising some events. I'm currently looking for a way to fund it as it's all coming out my own pocket at the moment cuz you can't apply for arts council funding while you study. I just want to be able to pay the people whose work I'm showing. 

AW: Can you tell us about some of the artists you’ve been working with over the past few months? How has it been for you being on the other side - working with showcasing artists as opposed to being the artist exhibiting?

LJ: By now main-line has put on five exhibitions since it launched: Khatun, Georgia Sheridan, Rohan Patel, Felix Butterwick and Rob Terrestrial. It's been a proper mixed bag of photography, poetry, moving image and painting and it's been proper fun curating the space with regards to all the different mediums. I'm just trying to provide an inclusive, accessible and supportive space, I think that's what matters most. 

I've loved facilitating the showcasing of the resident's work, I'm much more interested in curatorial processes and writing than I am making my own art or having what most people would call a traditional practice.

Victoria Market, 2020, Rohan Patel

AW: It’s great that you’ve discovered what it is you want to put your energy into. I imagine this is the case for a number of students who realise their practice is not a “traditional” one, and want to start pursuing paths that veer away from the main one. Have you had conversations with tutors about these developments? What do you imagine the reaction will be from tutors at a contemporary art institution such as Central Saint Martins? 

LJ: Yeah, I spoke to Jes Fernie - curator and writer, who is just so cool and lovely and understanding, about departures from the typical practices you see on BA Fine Art courses. She reminded me that our degrees are for us and no one else and I think sometimes we all forget that; I didn't go to university to produce work for some random lecturer, I went to learn and refine my practice and that's what I'm going to do. I suspect that some tutors on the 2D pathway might be a bit reserved or sceptical of my practice as I think they were pre-pandemic and DPS year, so I'm thinking I might put in a request to transfer to XD. 

I find a vast majority of people at prestigious institutions are shy or even ignorant when it comes to political and/or socially engaged practices/issues and like you mentioned previously, see community engagement and analyses of participation as low-quality work which just shouldn't be the case. 
AW: I’m also curious to know, how did the name Main-Line come about?

LJ: I actually named main-line after the Midland Main Line railway track that connects Nottingham with London. I've got such an affinity with train travel and the feeling and concept of emotional and physical distance that it just seemed perfect. It was funny actually because Georgia [Sheridan], told me to check out the poetry of Kathy Pimlott afterwards; I bought her collection of poems and one was named Midland Mainline, a really stunning description of that distance I mentioned and I just knew I'd made the right decision.

AW: Beautiful! I love that it has a poetic and personal touch that those local to Nottingham would immediately recognise, but others might not. 

Finally, what advice would you give to current students who are thinking of veering away from the traditional art school path? 

LJ: I genuinely just think that if you have an idea or there’s something you want to do, regardless of tradition, that you should just go for it. You’ve got 3/4 years of ~relative~ free rein over your research and making whilst you’re at art school and like I said before, your degree is yours and yours only. Have unapologetic confidence in your ideas and your practice, consider ethics, accountability and inclusive practices and be humble, compassionate and gracious.  

You can find out more about Main-line here: https://www.mainline-space.com/

Or on their instagram: @mainline_space