BBC South Today Reporting on Art in Launderettes – Mahlia Amatina

What does the future hold for the humble launderette....?

So I’ve recently been trawling through the launderettes of Reading, getting to know the local social hub of where fabric softeners meet gently ruminating washing machines.

Launderettes have been in decline in the UK with around 12,000 in the 1970s to around 3000 today, so it’s been really interesting to see how they are used and by whom. By bringing project ‘Around the World in 80 Washing Lines’ to Reading’s launderettes as part of the ‘Art in Unusual Places’ theme, I’m hoping to add renewed interest to Reading’s launderettes, while also inspiring spirited and thoughtful conversation around the art installation.

But what else can a launderette possibly offer and how are places outside of Reading keeping themselves in constant spin and evolve…?

Well, launderettes have recently gained a ‘retro’ appeal among residents in the UK and are becoming popular gathering places where customers can enjoy a wide range of amenities from art exhibitions to cocktail bars while they do their laundry (reference: Guardian Tues 8th March 2016).

Rock band ‘Real Fur’ have played a tour of the UK in launderettes, including one on the Roman Road in east London. It’s clear that originality is something they make a rule out of and this works both ways, with launderettes seeming to offer that little bit extra above the usual ‘wash and dry’. And what a great place to see a gig! A real cozy and intimate feeling – you’d really get to see the band up close and personal.

And then you have places like the ‘Laundromat Café’ chain across Scandinavia where they’ve allocated a whole floor to a café and social area with a fabulous menu and art exhibitions taking place periodically. What a fab idea in installing a real social hub and atmosphere around something as basic and mundane as a place where you wash and dry your clothes…?

Have you seen any interesting launderettes? Are they offering anything out of the ordinary? Please write in the comments below - I’d love to hear from you :)

Art in Unusual Places: Bringing Art into Launderettes

It’s exciting times at Amatina HQ, as funding was recently awarded for Reading’s Year of Culture theme ‘art in unusual places’! And what better than to feature a sample of project ‘Around the World in 80 Washing Lines’ in launderettes around Reading?

Why launderettes, you ask? Well, typically art tends to be exhibited in galleries and more traditional art venues. Laundrettes would provide people who may not typically engage with the arts with access to it. The art installation would provide an additional feature for the launderette, and a fitting one too. It’s a great way for launderettes to offer something different, and this is a topic I’ll be exploring in my next blog!

The residents of Reading will be the inspiration for my art making, as I plan to run a cross-section of workshops across community groups in Reading to engage with the various backgrounds and diverse make-up of people that we have. This will then provide the images and stories for the art installation that will be hung up in launderettes around Reading. I’m really looking forward to hearing and learning about the stories behind the washing lines directly from Reading residents!

The stories and images will then feed into the overall ‘Around the World in 80 Washing Lines’ project, which is all about culture, diversity and the similarities between us as human beings. I feel it’s an incredibly important message to highlight in today’s world, where often our attention is honed in on our differences.

So the workshops are to follow shortly and soon after the images will be hitting a launderette in Reading! I’ll keep you posted on progress across my social media platforms ;)

“Our Hospitals should be Galleries!”

Art Scope. The latest new gallery in Reading. High quality art. Beautiful gifts. Stunning sculptures. One thing though: it’s all under the roof of the clinical setting of a hospital…

That’s right, not your average destination for art, I know. But it’s surely one of the most powerful and impactful settings for art to be based, what with its ability to distract, interact and engage with the public? And then there’s the healing element of art and its ability to transcend traditional boundaries of communications.

The public atrium at the Circle hospital is the brainchild project of Rukshi Brownlow who put together the gallery at the initial building stages of the hospital. Believing in the fundamental ethos that ‘to create a beautiful space improves the experience for everyone’, she set about with this ambitious project to create an art gallery within a hospital, and has now set the ideal blue print for new Circle hospitals being built. She also states that ‘a recent study of art in 3 London hospitals showed that 9 out of 10 patients thought that the art made a difference to their experience, and 7 out of 10 patients were conscious that their anxiety levels were reduced as a direct result of the art’. A compelling fact.

One of the beauties of art in a hospital is that you have a captive audience. Patients are sat waiting for their appointments, and while doing so, they can attend to a piece of art – knowingly or not - and absorb themselves in a painting; something one may ordinarily not have the time to do. There’s also the relaxed beauty of no heaving crowds, people guarding the paintings, or that irritable wire that buzzes the second you come within a millimetre of a half metre away from the subject. The experience of art is a truly relaxing, beautiful and impactful one, and what I find really interesting is that the vast majority of patients have never visited a gallery before. So by bringing the art to the visitors, you’re being introducing to a whole new experience. Didn’t expect that from your hospital visit, did you?

There’s also something about the pure feeling of vulnerability in a hospital. It doesn’t matter who or what we are outside of a hospital; when we’re a patient, we’re dealing with an element of the unknown. We’re dependent on the views of Doctors and the outcome of tests and analysis: this isn’t our world and we don’t have the same control we harness and manifest in the rest of our lives. So the difference that art has to make in this setting is huge – and not just to the patients and visitors, but staff too.

The gallery has received ample positive feedback from visitors to the hospital and the scheme is being rolled out to select other Circle hospitals – that is the power, resolve and need for art in public spaces. And I am very lucky to have my art shown at the Reading Art Scope Gallery with my painting ‘Community Roots’. A seeming good fit with the hospital, as the painting explores the concept of laying down roots with the resources that we have, and growing a community of roots across our lifetime. Come take a look: these days, you needn’t be a patient to visit a hospital – everyone is very welcome :)

NOTE: The gallery is open Mon – Fri  from 8am to 6pm with free car parking and a café (with a Michelin star chef, no less!). Further details can be found on the website: http://www.artscopeatcircle.co.uk/

Barbed Wire, a Refugee and a Washing Line.

What a powerful, compelling and emotive photograph. Barbed wire, a refugee and a washing line. This photo came out as Angelina Jolie Pitt warned that the international humanitarian system for refugees is breaking down. She also warned against a "fear of migration" and a "race to the bottom" as countries have been competing to be the strongest to protect themselves from refugees.

The refugee crisis has truly become a global issue and as my project ‘Around the World in 80 Washing Lines’ highlights is that laundry doesn’t discriminate – we all have laundry to do irrespective of who, what or where we are in the world.

Trembling Art

What is it that makes us tremble at the thought of giving our views on a piece of fine art? That quick line of beady sweat which develops on one’s forehead as we attempt to intellectualise what it is that’s staring right back at our very faces…?

This crops up time and time again, and it seems to affect quite a vast number of us. I’d love to hear your views on the topic.

I used Barbara as an example of this at a recent visit to The Courtauld Gallery in London. We had full access to the gallery, so were free to roam where we liked. Little did she know at the time, but I was watching Barbara. Looking at how she was engaging with the art, what comments and questions were raised as a result – and ultimately what she thought of the art. Her views, her opinions. It’s not a lot to ask, right? Wrong.

Firstly it’s important to say that Barbara does like art. She visits museums and galleries. She is a cultured being. She speaks French, has travelled the world, has a degree and works in an international team in various countries around the world. She even comes from culture capital of Britain: Birmingham. My point is that she probably has a ‘higher than average’ access and exposure to art, yet when asked what she thinks of a Henri Matisse’s painting ‘The Red Beach’, she becomes a bumbling, inarticulate, blushing being. She is lost, strayed away from her comfort zone, marooned far into the distance of a primitive island benign to the human race…

The painting in question...

Okay, a little far-fetched, but as you can see from this interview, Barbara is not at ease with my questioning. And she’s not the only one. Many will judder and shake at such questioning, or use the opportunity to eavesdrop discretely when others are having such discussions – storing up their answers for just this type of awkward occasion.

Description of 'The Red Beach'

Surely an opinion on a painting, is an opinion? You are entitled to that view and you needn’t have to justify it with flowery, intellectualised words of philosophical jargon and artistry? You give your views on films, concerts and other art forms quite happily, but what’s with the cement in the throat when art hits the discussion decks?

I do understand it to an extent. I really do. People want to appear eloquent and intellectual, full of name-drops from history and their cultured upbringing. This is who they are in their lives and the persona they use for the world. But surely to speak up and give a view, however minimal it is – or simply stating that they don’t like the art, is a better way forwards…?

I’m not sure why we don’t speak up more on our art views. We’re an opinionated lot, after all. But do please enlighten me. I’d love to hear your views on how it is for you engage with art. Do please share your view. Whatever it is. I won’t judge you.

Time to Share the Load, Today - #ShareTheLoad

While conducting research for my ‘Around the World in 80 Washing Lines’ art project, I came across a powerful and poignant advert by Ariel in India, aiming to get men to share the load around the home. It’s a fitting ad with Mother’s Day just this weekend, and highlights the gender inequalities that still exist in the household roles that men and women play today – and all round the world.

One of the aspects that inspired me to do the washing line project was the universal concept of how the simple nature of washing and hanging clothes out to dry is a basic task that we all undertake, irrespective of who, what or where we are in the world. In a world of so called eternal change and disparities in culture and identity, the simplistic notion of the idea is what really grabbed my attention.

And it’s not just washing clothes either. There are many similarities that we all bear – whether we stop to think of this or not. But when drilling down further, though washing clothes may be a generic task across the world, it is still very much perceived as a woman’s task. Obviously, society has progressed on many levels, with the typical ‘stay-at-home-dad’ in acceptance - yet the eternal philosophy of women wanting to ‘have it all’, sadly, can still entail the weekly wash load. But I don’t rinse that fact, you exclaim! True. I know you don’t all concur. But then again adverts succeed on their ability to relate and connect on an emotional level with people. And this ad ain’t doing too badly…

The laundry detergent advert has been going viral and is clearly having an effect with comments such as “one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen” by Facebook’s CEO Sheryl Sandberg, and debates are being spun off on Twitter with regards to the heavy and real load of gender inequality.

Insightful and engaging, the commercial shows a father in India reading a letter to his daughter, who is seen busy rushing around the house, multi-tasking all that needs to be done, while at the same time taking care of her family. Do note that the husband is also multi-tasking, though his ‘tasks’ include: sitting on the sofa, watching telly, surfing the net and asking his wife to make him a drink. Ahem... An excerpt of the father's letter touches on gender role stereotypes and reads:

“I never told you that it’s not your job alone, but your husband’s too, but how could I have said it, when I never helped your mum either,” the father continues. “Your husband must have learnt the same from his dad.... Sorry on behalf of his dad ... sorry on behalf of every dad who set the wrong example.”

It’s a strong social message that is being fabricated, and one that is often overlooked with the world’s ongoing troubles. It’s great to see boundaries being addressed and challenged in advertising. Especially in an age when fast-forwarding the ad is more the norm. But my real question is – will the balance of the load ever truly shift, and if so, how long will it take? It won’t be in any of our generations. That’s for sure. Take a look at the video, if you haven’t yet seen the ad, and have a think – but more so, act.

As ever, if you have any photos of washing lines from around the world – do please continue to send them in. Regardless of your gender. I love how art creates a conversation!

This blog is dedicated to all the mothers out there – a Happy Mother’s Day for Sunday – and here’s to sharing the load. Not just on Mother’s Day.

ARTFINDER: "We Got Married!" by Mahlia Amatina - A contemporary and quirky take on Banksy's sign...

ARTFINDER: "We Got Married!" by Mahlia Amatina - A contemporary and quirky take on Banksy's sign...