A Behind the Scenes Look at
Planning, Transportation and Exhibition

Kambani attends a large number of events to exhibit work. There is a lot of effort involved in ensuring that plans run smoothly and that customers are satisfied with our work.  

Kambani prides itself on delivering a highly professional, organised and timely service when setting up its exhibitions. We have made a bold commitment to providing an exemplary service and we aim to maintain our 100% record of positive feedback.

A considerable amount of Kambani’s work is on display or stored at Epping Studio Galleries, Harrison Gibson Department Store, Ilford, London. When attending an event, Chima will give forward notice to Epping Studios proprietor Trevor Krueger of the amount of work which will be required to be taken from the gallery to be used for the event. The gallery needs to be aware so that it can temporarily re-arrange the display area to accommodate Kambani’s requests. Chima will normally help Trevor in ensuring that the gallery is adequately organised when taking artwork for events.
The average event requires approximately 20 – 40 pieces of artwork to fill relevant spaces and ensure an impacting display. Kambani has over 150 paintings at present so this is not a problem but the aspect of ensuring the gallery is appropriately re-arranged is quite important as this affects potential buyers calling in to the gallery.  

Kambani is largely responsible for ensuring that this happens so this often entails a visit to the gallery the evening before an event takes place to sort out which work to take and display, and also to re-arrange the gallery space accordingly. Chima will then load the van with all the necessary paintings from the gallery. Bear in mind that this process takes considerable time and effort as the gallery is on the 3rd floor and one can only manage a certain number of paintings at a time. Two hours is average time in most cases.  
The day of an event, the works are transported to the venue and offloaded. Offloading is often difficult as it entails finding suitable parking space and loading work safely. London is a highly organised city and there are strict parking enforcement arrangements in most central areas. This means that we have to be careful to avoid violating regulations and incurring a heavy fine. As such, offloading needs to be fast and organised and then the van needs to be appropriately parked and paid for. Parking in central London areas is usually around £40.00 per day, unless in the evening.
Once the works are in the venue and the van is parked appropriately, the process of taking them to the specific location and then arranging the presentation begins.
Bear in mind that for an event to be effective, a visit would have been made by Chima to the venue sometime prior to the actual event date to hold a planning meeting with organisers/ appropriate venue staff. Chima would talk over his proposals, discuss hanging options, agree what can and cannot be done, especially in terms of fixings on the wall -  nails, glue, tape, brackets etc. Chima will then take pictures of any agreed areas and take these back to use in planning exactly how the work will be displayed to have the maximum effect.
Arranging the presentation and putting up the work is probably the most important and also the most difficult aspect of the exhibiting process. It requires timing, patience and tenacity. Each venue is unique and will take a different amount of time to put up depending on the technique used.
In Kensington and Chelsea Town hall, there are complete restrictions on fixings to the walls and all walls are red brick. Chima came up with a unique approach to resolve the problem by using wooden batons in the grooves of the wall, in the mortar joint space. These were wedged in place with paper. Each painting was then affixed with a bracket which was screwed in place. Each painting was then affixed to the wall by using screws to attach to the batons. 
In The Radisson Edwardian Hotel Heathrow, there were no applicable walls to use. The only available exhibition space were glass walls or hanging from railings. In this instance, Chima came up with the idea of using suction hooks to affix to the glass. It took a while to find but these hooks but they have become invaluable additions to Kambani’s exhibition technique as they are simple to use, simple to remove and leave no mess. 

In the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, there was a lot of marble wall space available which was easy to work with as we simply affixed Velcro strips to the backs of paintings and affixed them to the wall. They can easily hold most paintings adequately and are relatively easy to remove with little or no mess. On all other walls we used blue easily removable scotch tape strips, fixed Velcro strips to the paintings and attached them to the scotch tape the same way as with the marble.

In the Wembley Conference Centre we had to suspend the paintings from the ceiling using fish tackle attached to hooks on each side of the painting, similar to the method used at the Alliance Francaise exhibition in Enugu, Nigeria where paintings were suspended from the ceiling using ropes and hooks. It is quite time consuming to ensure the work is level.
Kambani also uses easels from Epping Studio Galleries. These are very useful for larger paintings and free standing options. The only issue with these is their obstructive nature and sometimes people accidentally bump into them which can result in damage.  After the exhibition has been set up, it is then important to keep an eye on proceedings just in case something goes wrong or people touch the work unnecessarily. It can be quite hectic when a lot of people are mingling in a venue. It is important to carry on the primary function of networking and meeting potential clients, as well as ensuring everything goes well.

At the end of the event, the daunting task of taking everything down then takes place. Thank God this process is much easier than setting up. All the paintings have to be taken down and the walls checked for damage. Any mess must be cleared up as Kambani wants to maintain a 100% customer satisfaction record. Surfaces are cleaned, papers picked up, equipment removed. This process can also take a lot of time as all artwork needs to be re-loaded on the van and transported home. As a guide, a typical central London event will finish at 3am. Clearing and packing up can take between 1½ -2 hours. Driving home normally takes another hour. This often means getting home at 6am. I then need to return the paintings to the gallery the same day and make sure they are arranged accordingly.

After all this work I simply lean back and thank God for blessing me with such a busy, varied and interesting opportunity, I then smile and await the next exhibition challenge where the process starts all over again……..
© Kambani Ltd 04