Lecture & Reception: Jain Embroidered Shrine Hangings

You are invited to celebrate the opening of Visualizing Devotion: Jain Embroidered Shrine Hangings. This exhibition highlights Jain devotional textiles (chhoda) from the Ronald and Maxine Linde Collection, promised gifts to the Fowler Museum. Eye-catching works comprised of velvet and sateen cloth lavishly embroidered with gold and silver-gilt thread, chhoda shine with visual references to Jain mythology, influential spiritual teachers, sacred sites, ritual traditions, and other crucial religious themes. In addition to objects from the Linde Collection, the installation includes devotional works lent by representatives of the museum’s community partner the Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC).

This event celebrates this important partnership through which the Fowler curators and educators learned about the history, practices, and ethics of local Jain communities.

2–3: Talk by Lynna Dhanani, assistant professor, department of religious studies, UC Davis

3–4: Reception

This event is co-sponsored by the Center of India and South Asian Studies and the Center for the Study of Religion.

Credits

Visualizing Devotion is organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and curated by Lynna Dhanani (assistant professor, Department of Religious Studies, UC Davis), Dr. Jayesh Shah (Jain Center of Southern California), Dr. Mahendra Shah (Jain Center of Southern California), Padma Shah (Jain Center of Southern California), Hemendra Doshi (Jain Center of Southern California), Steven M. Vose (visiting assistant professor, Department of History, University of Colorado-Denver), Syona Puliady (curatorial assistant, Fowler Museum), and Patrick A. Polk (senior curator of Latin American and Caribbean popular arts, Fowler Museum). The works on view are promised gifts of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Collection. This exhibition is part of the Fowler initiative, Engaging Lived Religion, generously funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc. Additional support is provided by the Anne and John Summerfield Fund.

Parking available in UCLA Lot 4, 198 Westwood Plaza, directly off Sunset Blvd; $3/hr or max $14/day. Rideshare drop-off at 305 Royce Dr.

Image: Unidentified artist(s), (Gujarat, India), Om Hrim Praise to the Blessed Circle of the Perfected Ones, 1965; velvet, silk cloth, gold and silver gilt thread, plated metal sequins, cotton thread, wire, glass; Promised Gift from the Ronald and Maxine Linde Collection, L2022.13.12