“Ikat Circuits and Creativity” by Dr. Urmila Mohan

About the lecture “Ikat Circuits and Creativity”: 

Rajkot Patola is a handloomed silk textile that uses ikat patterning along the weft, and more recently, weft and warp. This ikat craft is popular in Gujarat in western India and has reached national as well as global markets. Yet, its history and the manner in which it developed has been mostly ignored in studies of Indian heritage textiles. This lecture shares how Rajkot Patola came to be a craft success and how it has influenced other ikat forms in India. Dr. Mohan will share photos from her ethnographic research in India and relate them to textiles in the “Ikat Enchantment” exhibit.

About the exhibition:

The pieces on display are from Dr. Mohan’s 2024-25 field research with ikat artisans, traders, and consumers in India. They encourage us to consider history and culture as well as the various forces, from aesthetics to livelihood, that shape Indian ikat repertoire. 

Ikat refers to resist-patterned, tie-dyed textiles and is a term borrowed from Malay/Indonesian. In India, there are local names for ikat traditions and this exhibit highlights patola, a woven silk textile from Gujarat. Historically traded to other parts of the world, patola has been revitalized for new markets within India. Simultaneously, the meanings and uses of these textiles are being re-imagined.

Curated by Dr. Urmila Mohan and Romina Chuls

Dr. Urmila Mohan:

Dr. Urmila Mohan is a leading public-facing anthropologist, editor, and publisher whose work examines how sociocultural values are circulated through cloth, bodily practices, and belief systems. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from University College London, and has a background in art and design. Her ethnographic research is based in India, Indonesia, and the U.S. and her most recent work on Gujarati patola was funded by a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Research Excellence Fellowship. She is part of global working groups and supports innovation through her platform, The Jugaad Project (www.thejugaadproject.pub).

Dr. Mohan’s research has been supported by the Fulbright Program; Asian Cultural Council, New York; Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections, Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and The Rotary Foundation International. Her research includes an ethnography of Hindu devotees who make garments for their deities (Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism), a curatorial study of Balinese ritual textiles at the American Museum of Natural History (Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles), and an exploration of how designers sewed masks to protect fellow citizens (Masking in Pandemic U.S.). She theorizes the materiality of practices in her edited volume, The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices.

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