Colours in the Field: Cotton, Empire and alternative futures in India

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Join us for an exhibition launch and panel discussion on the colonial legacies of India’s extractive cotton monocultures. Exhibition Overview: Combining archival research with natural pigments screen printed on cotton, Colours in the Field unearths the colonial legacies of India’s extractive cotton monocultures and their connections to Manchester. Through stories of struggle, courage, and hope, it foregrounds the experiences of women farmers in India and asks how they might be forging more viable pathways as they transition to agroecology. Zig-zagging between past, present, and future, the exhibition invites the audience to explore how colonial histories sediment, recombine, and mutate, producing presents fissured with possibilities for building futures ‘otherwise’. Exhibition co-produced by Dr Arianna Tozzi (Researcher) and Himanshi Parmar (Artist). Event Agenda: 4:30 - 5pm: Exhibition viewing and refreshments 5 - 5:30pm: Lightning talks from the panelists (Dr Arianna Tozzi (Researcher), Himanshi Parmar (Artist) and Prof Alison Browne) 5:30 - 5:45pm: Panel discussion moderated by Anke Bernau 5:45 - 6pm: Audience Q&A 6 - 6:30pm: Post-talk exhibition viewing