Workshop: Reframing Chinese Objects

The International Workshop “Reframing Chinese Objects: Collecting and Displaying in Europe and the Islamic World, ca. 1400-1800” will take place on 7-8 December 2018 within the framework of the project “Objects of Wonder,” funded by the Field of Focus 3: Cultural Dynamics in Globalized Worlds, Excellence Initiative II at the Heidelberg University. The workshop is organised by Prof. Dr. Sarah E. Fraser, Dr. Lianming Wang (Art Histories Fellow 2018/19) and Yusen Yu from the Institute of East Asian Art History in conjunction with the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Near East at the Heidelberg University and will take place at the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies in Heidelberg.

Interior view of Chini-khana. Shrine of Shaykh Safi, Ardabil, Iran. Photo by Yusen Yu, 2011

Across Early Modern Europe and the Islamic world, Chinese objects were collected and displayed as a means of demonstrating the collector’s cultural credentials. Porcelain vases were juxtaposed as a set of garniture in Europe, or installed in the niche of a Persian and Mughal Chini-khana or Porcelain Pavilion; a mounted Chinese scroll would be cut out and later remounted with decorative frames in a Persian album. Such practices of reframing provide the landscape in which to appreciate a Chinese object as they cross the cultural borders.

This international workshop investigates such phenomenon of Chinese objects being “reframed.” It settles on a transcultural approach shared by historians of global connectedness. Our focus extends beyond object per se, and explores the way it was reused, re-contextualized, and institutionalized in the early modern global courtly milieu.

The workshop is meant to provide a forum for inter-disciplinary discussion and collaboration between experts in different fields. It further links European Chinoiserie with the practices of collecting and displaying Chinese objects in the Islamic world. In particular, invited speakers discuss the architectural setting in which Chinese porcelain was displayed in Early Modern Europe and the Islamic world.

The workshop will begin with a keynote speech (Dec 8, 2018, 9.15 am) by Prof. Dr. Stacey Pierson, SOAS, London titled “Framing ʻChinaʼ: Architecture, Collecting and the Spatial Aesthetics of Chinese Porcelain in Global Display Contexts”

Pre-registration is required. Please send your registration by e-mail to Mr. Yusen Yu: yusen.yu@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de

For the comprehensive programme and more information please visit: http://iko.uni-hd.de/reframing.