NICK CROWE and Ian Rawlinson are a good advert for long-distance relationships.

As artist-partners, they have worked together for 16 years – yet one lives in Manchester and the other in Berlin.

“It’s quite demanding travelling backwards and forwards between the two cities for our family lives, but it’s a great way to do it and it gives us a different atmosphere,” says Rawlinson, the Manchester side of the partnership.

“We’re in pretty much constant communication but nothing gets signed off until we’ve both physically been there together with it.”

They never argue, he reveals.

“We’ve always given each other the absolute right of veto, so if we’re working on something and Nick turns to me and says ‘that’s wrong’ it would immediately be wrong for me, too,” explains Rawlinson, whose new joint show is opening at Liverpool’s Ceri Hand Gallery this week.

Their work comes out of a series of discussions after which they go into the studio and “push materials around until they speak to you”.

“Simply because we have discussions doesn’t mean we come to blows over it,” he continues.

“We’ve worked with each other 16 years now, so we do know a lot about the way each other thinks.”