Visualizing Devotion: Jain Embroidered Shrine Hangings

November 20, 2022–April 16, 2023

This exhibition highlights Jain devotional textiles (chhoda) from the Ronald and Maxine Linde Collection, promised gifts to the Fowler Museum. Eye-catching works 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 which were acquired in the western Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra, the installation will include photographs documenting the use of chhoda in personal and public shrines by Jain adherents in Southern California.

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.