The Society for the History of Collecting is delighted to announce its forthcoming online lecture on Thursday, 20 November 2025 at 18.00 (GMT); 19.00 (CET); 1.00 (EST); 10.00 (PST) Isabel Seligman and Billie Duch Giménez, Reflections on Hew Locke: What have we here?
In 2022, the British Museum invited artist Hew Locke to reinterpret its collections for the major exhibition Hew Locke: what have we here? (October 2024 – February 2025). Known for his incisive explorations of empire, migration, and memory, Locke – working closely with curators Isabel Seligman, Billie Duch Giménez and his partner and studio curator Indra Khanna – developed a deeply collaborative project that wove together new artworks with objects from the Museum’s collections.
This talk will explore how the project confronted difficult colonial histories, foregrounded provenance, and tested new models of transparency and dialogue between artist and museum. It will examine the evolution of the exhibition, from the curatorial process and selection of objects to the innovative dual-voice interpretive approach that placed Locke’s reflections in dialogue with institutional texts. Reflecting on visitor responses and institutional learnings, the talk will explore the transformative potential of artist-led curation in reshaping how we tell difficult stories about our shared pasts
Speaker Biographies:
Isabel Seligman is Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. She was Lead Curator of the exhibition Hew Locke: what have we here? (2024–2025) and co-author of the accompanying book (British Museum Press). Other recent exhibitions and publications include Drawing Attention: emerging British artists (British Museum, 2022), Pushing Paper: Contemporary Drawing from 1970 to Now (Thames and Hudson, 2019), Lines of Thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to Now (Thames and Hudson, 2016) and contributions to David Hockney: Drawing from Life (National Portrait Gallery, 2020) and The American Dream: Pop to the Present (Thames and Hudson, 2017).
Billie Duch Giménez was the Project Curator of the exhibition ‘Hew Locke: what have we here?’ (2024 – 2025), and is an early-career curator with a focus on colonial contexts and provenance research. Currently an Interpretation Manager at the British Museum, they also deliver creative workshops at the National Maritime Museum as part of Queer History Club, a community-led research group. With an interest in eighteenth-century botanical collecting, they use creative writing to explore maritime history, taxonomy and identity.
Registration for the lecture will close on 18 November. A link to register for the Zoom will be sent round to all registrants on 19 November.
Source: https://thesocietyforthehistoryofcollecting.wildapricot.org/event-6414090
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