If Walls Could Talk: A symposium on Chinese wallpaper and creativity

Join us at this symposium to explore the meaning, materiality and making of Chinese export wallpaper throughout history.

Artists, academics and conservators will explore the meaning, materiality and making of Chinese export wallpaper throughout history, and how participatory approaches with communities and students can open up new dialogues in heritage spaces.

Speakers

Xiaofan Zhang: The Cross-Cultural Generative Mechanism of Chinese Wallpaper
Xiaofan Zhang​ examines how Chinese wallpaper evolved through cross-cultural exchange, highlighting the role of Chinese artisans in adapting designs for global markets. Using theories of Orientalism and hybridity, she presents wallpaper as a site of cultural negotiation and material transformation.

Sève Favre: Wallpaper and Invasive Plants — A Shared Colonial History
Contemporary artist Sève Favre explores how invasive plant species, as byproducts of colonial expansion, intersect with the imagery found in Chinese wallpaper and chintz, revealing how the plants carry embedded histories of trade and power.

Amy Junker Heslip: From the Royal Pavilion to Guangzhou
Accredited Paper Conservator Amy Junker Heslip traces a set of Chinese wallpapers from Royal Pavilion in Brighton back to their creation in Guangzhou, using their materials and pigments to reveal trade routes and offer insights into the workshops that produced them.

Robert Knifton: If Walls Could Talk to Students – A Course Leader's Reflections on Participation
Robert Knifton will examine and discuss Leeds student involvement in If Walls Could Talk, and reflect on the opportunities that participatory practice and co-production with our student cohorts enables. 

Louise Atkinson: Migration Patterns
Louise Atkinson outlines her creative responses to the Chinese export wallpaper at Harewood House, shaped by cultural traditions and migration narratives in Leeds. Her practice is framed alongside contemporary ESEA artists who use wallpaper as a medium to explore history, identity, and cross-cultural exchange.

The symposium will end with a procession and lion dance, followed by a celebration event to mark the opening of a new exhibition in Project Space from 5 to 7pm (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies).

See the full programme and speaker biographies.

Find out about the exhibition in Project Space (Pictures of Tilling and Weaving).

Book your place

This event is free but booking is essential.

Book your free place on Eventbrite.

More information

This event is organised by Dr Louise Atkinson (Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds) as part of the If Walls Could Talk project.

Find out more about the symposium and the If Walls Could Talk project.

Image

A scene of tea production from the wallpaper at Harewood House. Image credit: Harewood House Trust.