Join us for a unique opportunity to hear artist Sara Sallam discuss her practice and the new work she has made to accompany our current exhibition, Egypt: Influencing British Design 1775 – 2025.
This will be a magical evening in celebration of our new installation of Sara Sallam’s work. As part of our current exhibition, Egypt: Influencing British Design 1775 - 2025, Sallam has produced A Tourist Handbook for Egypt Outside of Egypt, Vol. II – London. Displayed in the Foyle Space in large scale, Sallam’s collages juxtapose photographs of London’s commemorative statues and imperial architecture with nineteenth-century paintings of correlating events in Egypt. She has also created a second work, Eyes that Weep, Eyes that Pierce, an audio tour available exclusively on Bloomberg Connects, which is inspired by the sarcophagus of Seti I.
During this special event, Sallam will discuss her artistic practice in conversation with Max Houghton, writer, curator and editor, exploring themes including counter-histories in image and text, decentring Western perspectives and reimagining unheard voices, and working with and against archives. There will also be a live performance by Sallam of her work in our iconic candlelit Crypt, next to the Sarcophagus of Seti I.
Guests will have the chance to experience Sir John Soane's Museum after hours, by candlelight. There will be an opportunity to view Sallam’s installation in our Foyle Space from 18:00 and a drinks reception in our atmospheric drawing rooms will follow the talk and performance. Guests will also be able to view the main exhibition after hours.
About the event
Timings for the evening will be as follows:
- 18:00: Doors open; opportunity to view Sara Sallam’s installation in the Foyle Space
- 18:30: Talk begins
- 19:10: Performance & exhibition viewing
- 20:00: Drinks reception
- 20.30: Event finishes
Your confirmation email serves as your ticket for this event. Please note that we do not issue physical tickets for our events.
About the speakers
Sara Sallam is a multidisciplinary artist from Egypt, living in the Netherlands. Her research-based practice, distinguished by poetic reimaginings, spans photography, moving images, writing, performative voice narration, archival interventions, and self-publishing handmade books. She focuses on retelling contested histories through counter-narratives centred on empathy and critical fabulation to decolonise her Egyptian heritage. Through deeply personal and politically charged works, she interrogates archival silences, displacement, and forgotten perspectives.
Max Houghton is a writer, curator and editor and is the Course Leader for the MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, working with the photographic image as it intersects with politics, law and human rights. She is part of a LCC research collective including journalists, human rights lawyers and artists called ‘Visible Justice’ which she co-founded – representing the intersection of visual culture and social justice. With Fiona Rogers she co-edited Firecrackers: Female Photography Now (2017), a photobook encompassing the work of multiple women or female-identifying photographers and has done much to promote women and those identifying as women through her work. She has written monographs for books such as Anja Niemi’s In Character, Vanessa Winship’s Sweet Nothings and Martin Usborne’s Where the Hunting Dogs Rest, and her writing appears in publications by The Photographers’ Gallery and The Barbican, as well as in the international arts press, including Foam, 1000 Words, Photoworks and Granta.