Monday 1 September, 6-7 p.m. (BST): Online Talk: The Art of the Trademark in Indo-British Textile Trade with Shrey Maurya and Rachna Shetty of MAP Academy

Step into a bustling Indian bazaar, in the late 19th or 20th century, looking to buy cloth. As you survey the range of fabric available, a detail catches your eye – a glossy, multicoloured paper label affixed to nearly every length of cloth. Each label has a different image: a dancing elephant that makes you laugh, a familiar deity that invites devotion, a woman reclining in a lush garden that stirs longing, or a steamship that inspires dreams of distant shores.

These labels or textile tickets – also known as tikats, tikas or chaaps – arrived in India by the thousands, stuck on yards upon yards of cotton fabric manufactured in British, and later, Indian mills, and sold in Indian and global markets. As some of the earliest mass-produced colour advertisements in the subcontinent, they stirred desire, evoked memory and imbued meaning into the otherwise mundane act of commerce. Today, they are a testament to how images shape perception, value and desire. 

In this talk, Map Academy’s Shrey Maurya and Rachna Shetty explore these tickets, as they glimpse into a past where commerce and creativity are inextricably linked, and the histories of trade and colonial encounters are deeply intermeshed. 

Shrey Maurya  is the Research Director at Map Academy, an online platform that encourages greater engagement with South Asia’s art and cultural histories. She holds a bachelor’s in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, and a master’s in Visual Art from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She also holds a diploma in South Asian Painting from Jnanapravaha, Mumbai. Her research interests include miniature painting, Buddhist art, handloom textiles, jewellery, perfume, and cultures of adornment in the Indian subcontinent. Shrey helped set up the MAP Academy’s Encyclopedia of Art, and leads its Special Projects, overseeing its research and editorial direction. Her publications include Ticket Tika Chaap: The Art of the Trademark in the Indo-British Textile Trade (Niyogi Books, 2025), which she edited with the curator Nathaniel Gaskell. She is based in New Delhi.

Rachna Shetty is a Research Specialist at Map Academy, an online platform that encourages greater engagement with South Asia’s art and cultural histories. She holds a bachelor’s in Mass Media from the University of Mumbai and a post-graduate diploma in Museology and Conservation from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai. She is interested in folk and performing arts, as well as sports and popular culture. Rachna works with the MAP Academy’s Special Projects, focusing on research and writing. She is based in Mumbai.

All online talks during London Textile Month are 40 minutes long, followed by a 20-minute Q&A. A PDF with the Zoom link will be sent to you upon booking. A recording will be sent out in case you are unable to attend the live talk or would like to rewatch it.

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