Super/Market is an augmented reality experience created by Dr Louise Atkinson in collaboration with Chinese-speaking participants as a contemporary parallel to the Chinese export wallpaper in the East Bedroom.
The work centres on seasonal food as represented in the wallpaper and as a recurring theme in the workshops, linking everyday life and cultural heritage.
In Chinese export wallpaper, agricultural scenes reflect the cycles and processes of food production and export. Super/Market reimagines these motifs through contemporary images of food and festivals to mark different times of the year, connecting traditional methods with lived experiences of migration and modern food culture.
The title reflects global histories of trade, as well as shifts from agriculture to large-scale manufacture. Framed by a Chinese arch based on the entrance to a local supermarket, the work reflects the role these gateways have played in shaping identity and belonging in UK Chinatowns.
The installation is complemented by four postcard designs, each highlighting ingredients from seasonal foods and linking to its own augmented reality experience. Together, the installation and postcards celebrate food as a marker of time, community, and exchange.
If Walls Could Talk
Super/Market 2025 is part of a wider project called If Walls Could Talk.
If Walls Could Talk aims to open up these histories and make space for new interpretations, setting the scene for athenew augmented reality intervention in the East Bedroom. Developed from the creative workshops, the project aims to offer new interpretations, rooted in both historical research and contemporary voices, to explore how we read and respond to the objects in historic houses today.
You can find out more about the project by following @ifwallscouldtalk on Instagram.
Beyond reinterpreting the imagery within the Chinese wallpaper, the project critically examines its connections to Harewood’s colonial history & the broader implications of global trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.
With thanks
The project is supported by community artist Cassy Oliphant, Harewood House Trust Curator Jocelyn Anderson-Wood and academic Dr Robert Knifton, University of Leeds.
Translation is provided by students from the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies, and MA Arts Management and Heritage Studies programmes in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.
The project is generously funded by Arts Council England, Leeds Cultural Investment Partnership and the Merryl Huxtable Bursary 2024 Wallpaper History Society.
