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 ;)

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 :)