Drinks, darts, DJs and drag: Trackie McLeod turns exhibition into a pub

Trackie McLeod has built Utopia as a custom-made, fully functioning pub inside Factory International’s Aviva Studios. He will pull pints, there’s a dartboard where visitors can aim at images of Thatcher or Trump, and the space hosts mixed-media works alongside performances by drag acts, DJs and panel discussions.

“I’ve even got a fruit machine that spits out chocolate coins,” he says. “Which is a comment on how these machines rinse working-class pockets for their own gain. Whereas with this work, everyone’s a winner.” Commissioned by the Young Curators team, the show touches on nostalgia, class, identity and gentrification and reads as an ode to pubs and working men’s clubs as community hubs.

“I grew up in places like this,” McLeod says. “All our family occasions were there – weddings, birthdays, funerals. It’s where all the disputes happened. Spaces that were cheap and cheerful but championed character and comfort.

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