Kathmandu Calling! The Story Behind the Exhibiition: Part II

NAMASTE! And thank you for reading :) I am a self-taught artist looking to change the world. My entire ethos and being is about adding value and helping others. Nepal needs us, guys! Sure, a lot of other people do too, but one step at a time I say. 

So, why is Nepal so different to any other Country post-earthquake...? Good question. Well, firstly the terrain in Nepal is literally insane. Winter is coming, or pretty much here in fact. And life is incredibly tough for the living. Not only have these people lost 1000s of their own people, but most of the buildings and homes there have been destroyed. Shelter, even temporary, is paramount and desperately needed with the cold conditions coming. Monsoon season, which has now gone, has led to landslides which happen each year, and sadly more deaths. And that is just the beginning.

Your efforts with funding would help *gigantically*. Some of the factors include:

- Paintings and Workshops would be Sold at the Two Week Exhibition: this would help my two carefully chosen charities:  http://oursansar.org/ and http://phasenepal.org/ to continue with the already immense and brilliant work that they are currently doing. 

- Lives can be saved and conditions made better for the people in Nepal suffering from the physical and mental effects of two earthquakes and having to start their lives from scratch again.

- The Nepal-specific paintings and workshops will help inform and educate people about the country: its culture, landscapes, people - as well as reminding people of the Nepal earthquakes (some people feel that the earthquakes took place years ago)

- Art can help people engage with their local communities and this is the gap that I genuinely wish to bridge between the significant Gurkha population of Reading, along with the multi-nationalism that currently exists amongst Reading's ever-changing make-up.

 COME ALONG TONIGHT! FOR AMATINA IS A KATHMANDU CALLING, AS THESE NEPALI BOYS SAY ANYWAY ;)

"See the exhibition and immerse yourself with the Nepali-style workshops - at both Jelly and Watlington House Hall in Reading. Full details on venues and how to get there can be found on the website, here"

Kathmandu Central

Kathmandu Calling! The Story Behind the Exhibition: Part I

Soo, as I’m sure a lot of you would have heard by now: that Kathmandu is Calling in the name of art, the power of community – and will be bringing a true Nepalese cultural experience to Reading and beyond… Hurrah!

But what does this mean and why am I doing it? The mind slowly ponders... Well firstly, I have a great kinship with the country after volunteering there with children doing pre-school and after-school clubs with the kids; helping them with their Maths and English, as well as assisting with painting their (highly porous!) school walls. My volunteering also included a month at an orphanage in South Nepal with some of the most glorious children I have met. But it wasn’t just volunteering, you see. It was so much more than that. Yes, sure, I travelled and had some wonderful touristic experiences. True. However when you are volunteering – you are living amongst the community and therefore become a part of it. It adds a whole other dimension to the experience. I was staying in basic digs, eating their (amazing!) food and walking, talking their language. I loved it. I hadn’t met people like this before in my life – nor a country as beautiful as this. Unlike any other place I have been to in the world – simply because the world is so vast – Nepal is the first (and only place) that I have wanted to go back to. 

And back I went. I returned earlier this year to re-visit and travel some more. This was back in Feb, using redundancy funds from my previous life in the corporate role – Nepal was going to be the dividing line between the two lives. The line drawn in the sand, so to speak. The day I came back from Nepal, I decided to become an artist. Not only that, but I decided to do my first series of paintings dedicated to Nepal. This happened to be just two days before the first of the two horrific earthquakes hit Nepal. I was devastated at the news of the Quakes. Wholly and completely.

I’ve done a lot of work in that time: I have set myself up as an artist and made the decision that my first exhibition would absolutely be to help Nepal. I created my website: http://www.mahliaamatina.com/ and am currently working on the body of work that will be revealed at the exhibition, starting tomorrow (19^th Oct).

“It goes without saying that my first solo exhibition; ‘Kathmandu Calling!’ is dedicated to the people of Nepal - for their insatiable courage, profound spirit and overall resilience”

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah! A Time-Warp back to the Jackson's Store, Reading

Nostalgia bites and the store would feature in the ‘Best of British’ if only more people knew of it. Those from Reading, Berkshire and the other seven store locations in the South-East may know what I mean when I say that Jackson’s wasn’t just your 'average' high street store. It was like stepping into a time machine cascading back through the decades; a monumental museum to gawp at in awe, yet it had its duties: the store was infamous for kitting out the County’s kids with their school uniform. And hordes of them too. The charms of Reading don’t come much greater than this place – quirky, archaic and… well just oh so British!

Why am I mentioning this department store and what’s with the past tense? Well the store has now closed down after a whopping 145 years of trading (cor!). And it now plays host to a number of charities including the Bike Kitchen, but more importantly, to me: Jelly. This is where I will be hosting my very first solo art exhibition: ‘Kathmandu Calling!’ from 19^th – 31^st October 2015.

I walked into the store a few weeks back to meet with the delightful Suzanne Stallard (Director and Founder of Jelly) and the nostalgia hit me and took right over – I was an 11 year-old again, shopping with my parents and sister for my new school year Waingels Copse uniform. I remembered it so well, I felt like an old person creaking on about the past in parrot-fashion and quickly had to stop myself before my exhibition venue was swiftly aborted. Oh, nostalgia!

So where was I? BAM! I was flung back to the 1990s. That's right. See Jackson’s were renowned for their ‘old-fashioned-ways’ of doing things. So for example, receipts were all hand written out on an a receipt slip from a book. Not so strange you say? It is for a huge three floor department store, which is busy with people buy numerous items! Most remarkably though, it had a network of these pneumatic tubes, which basically meant that if you bought something; your cash and purchase itinerary would be put in to one of these ‘magic capsules’ and transported via these tubes directly to the cash room. Your order would be dealt with and the change sent back down this ‘tube system’ (who said only the London Underground had tubes?!) – back to the sales assistant and customer. Voila! The system built in the 1940s, they continued to use this ingenious method of trading until it closed in December 20013. WOW. I told you the place was special, right..?!

To exhibit at Jackson’s corner in the Old School Uniform department is a tremendous honour. Like truly. Edward Jackson back in 1875, built their family business up from scratch and *always* had a family member running the store from inception till death do us part. Though of course it lives on. This blog is living proof of that.

And why did they close? Some say they weren’t profiteering from the new age of internet shopping and modern technology. Officially though, the building maintenance costs and the huge modern shopping complex next door were declared as primary reasons for closure. Well one's thing for sure is that they left with their head held high! And I could not have asked for such an important venue to be the base for my very first solo exhibition in Reading – which is also my birth town and home today btw! One cannot wait :)