Knotted Pile Carpet, Lahore Central Jail (c. 1880)
EMPIRE LINES4 Nov 2021

Knotted Pile Carpet, Lahore Central Jail (c. 1880)

Dr. Dorothy Armstrong untangles British efforts to redefine colonial Indian culture, through a 19th century knotted pile carpet woven in Lahore Central Jail.

Produced with the low-cost labour of Indian prisoners, jail carpets were big business in the British Empire. Beyond physical coercion, imperial authorities also trapped India in their vision of 'authentic' oriental aesthetics, privileging Persian patterns and Parisian market demands over traditional Mughal methods. This particular carpet was one of a pair, purchased at the 1881 Punjab Exhibition for what would become the V&A Museum. Riding the history of both carpets - one surviving, and missing - into mass manufacture reveals how South Kensington intervened in the crafts of the colonised, centralising control and defining expectations both in India and at home, then and now.

PRESENTER: Dr. Dorothy Armstrong, May Beattie Visiting Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. She was previously a lecturer and tutor in Material Histories of Asia for the V&A/Royal College of Art History of Design Programme.

ART: Knotted Pile Carpet, Lahore Central Jail (c. 1880).

IMAGE: 'Carpet with woollen pile, palmette and leaf designs on a black ground with a red ground border, woven in Lahore Jail, c.1880'.

SOUNDS: V&A.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.


Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936

Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

Avsnitt(162)

I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now), with Chris Day and Gabriella Gay (EMPIRE LINES Live at V&A Wedgwood)

I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now), with Chris Day and Gabriella Gay (EMPIRE LINES Live at V&A Wedgwood)

In this special episode, glass artist Chris Day and poet and creative producer Gabriella Gay join EMPIRE LINES live, to reflect on the complex histories of the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery Medallion, and the...

26 Feb 59min

Hidden Histories, with Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Hidden Histories, with Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Wormcasts is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.  This series explores the global h...

16 Feb 5min

The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, Leslie Primo (2025), with Miranda Kaufmann (EMPIRE LINES Live at the National Gallery, London)

The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, Leslie Primo (2025), with Miranda Kaufmann (EMPIRE LINES Live at the National Gallery, London)

In this special episode, authors and historians Leslie Primo and Miranda Kaufmann join EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss migration, national identity, and the many heritages of Britain’s best-known artwor...

29 Jan 58min

The Water Diviners, Jumana Emil Abboud (2020-) (EMPIRE LINES x Artes Mundi 11, Mostyn)

The Water Diviners, Jumana Emil Abboud (2020-) (EMPIRE LINES x Artes Mundi 11, Mostyn)

Contemporary artist Jumana Emil Abboud respirits water sources from Palestine to Wales, drawing on folklore, oral storytelling, and memories of dispossession and resistance, in her ongoing series of c...

15 Jan 21min

Every Monument Will Fall, Dan Hicks (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Common Ground, Oxford)

Every Monument Will Fall, Dan Hicks (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Common Ground, Oxford)

In this special episode, author, curator, and archaeologist Dan Hicks joins EMPIRE LINES live, to trace the origins of contemporary conflicts over art, history, memory, and colonialism, through their ...

18 Dec 20251h 14min

Introducing: Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Introducing: Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Wormcasts is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.  This series explores the global h...

8 Dec 20252min

Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously, Miloš Trakilović (2023), with Jelena Visković (EMPIRE LINES Live at Forma, Artists' Film International 2025)

Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously, Miloš Trakilović (2023), with Jelena Visković (EMPIRE LINES Live at Forma, Artists' Film International 2025)

In this special episode, contemporary artists and filmmakers Miloš Trakilović and Jelena Visković join EMPIRE LINES live, exloring narratives of war, displacement, and visual cultures in the collapse ...

20 Nov 202544min

Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

Composer and artist Raven Chacon amplifies the Catholic Church’s complicity in the suppression of Indigenous people in the Americas, through their composition for organ, Voiceless Mass (2021).Raven Ch...

6 Nov 202518min

Populärt inom Samhälle & Kultur

en-mork-historia
podme-dokumentar
gynning-berg
p3-dokumentar
aftonbladet-krim
mardromsgasten
nemo-moter-en-van
skaringer-nessvold
badfluence
killradet
creepypodden-med-jack-werner
hor-har
spar
flashback-forever
kod-katastrof
vad-blir-det-for-mord
aftonbladet-daily
historiska-brott
rss-sanning-konsekvens
rattsfallen