What’s Chinese about Chinese export wallpaper?

Join us for the latest event in our ARTFUL talks series, with speakers Dr Rob Knifton and Dr Louise Atkinson from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.

This presentation introduces If Walls Could Talk, a participatory art and research project led by artist-researcher Louise Atkinson.The project explored the Chinese export wallpaper at Harewood House through historical research, co-produced art workshops, and augmented reality.

Working with Chinese-speaking communities in Leeds, the project investigated how historic interiors can be reinterpreted in relation to contemporary experiences of migration, challenging essentialised understandings of Chinese culture.

Louise Atkinson and Rob Knifton will also reflect on the contribution of Chinese-speaking postgraduate students in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies who supported the project through their MA placements. Their academic and cultural perspectives provided essential insight and strengthened the equity of representation across the project.

While the project was initially conceived as a response to Harewood’s ongoing work on colonial legacies, the inclusion of the students brought a new critical framing to the research, complicating prevailing decolonisation narratives.

About the speakers

Dr Louise Atkinson is a contemporary artist, researcher and community facilitator, and is currently based at the University of Leeds as a Visiting Research Fellow. Her practice explores the relationship between art and heritage, in which she employs a range of visual and digital media and techniques, including animation, repeat pattern design and augmented reality. Her work often incorporates processes of co-production and co-curation, creating new narratives with other people in response to existing archives, collections and histories.

Dr Robert Knifton is Associate Professor of Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. He works via collaborative practice in areas including the sensory environment of museums, digital collecting, popular culture, museums and archiving, defining heritage within shifting cultural ecologies, and the history and heritage of art education. He primarily lectures on the MA Programmes in Art Gallery & Museum Studies and Arts Management & Heritage Studies at the University of Leeds, including practice-based teaching and industry placements.

More information

This event is part of ARTFUL – a new series of public lunchtime talks organised by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.

The aim of the series is to bring together students, postgraduate researchers and staff to showcase our culture of vibrant research and creative practice across the school and beyond. Taking place on Mondays during termtime, speakers will include researchers, artists and practitioners.

Whilst primarily aimed at our school community, anyone interested in the series is welcome to join us. There is no need to book – please just turn up.

Find out about all ARTFUL talks in the series.

For more information, please email Mark Thorley at M.Thorley1@leeds.ac.uk.

Directions to the venue

See the campus map for location of the Liberty Building.

Directions (facing away from Parkinson steps): Follow the path to your right then turn right underneath the link building. Go all the way through campus until you reach the Clarendon Road entrance. Cross over at the traffic lights onto Moorland Road. Follow the road down. The Liberty Building is on your left.

Go through the main entrance and go straight ahead though two sets of double doors. Lecture Theatre LG.06 is situated on the lower ground floor. 

Accessibility information for the lecture theatre can be found here.

Image

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