Freud's 4pm Session: Cathie Pilkington in conversation with Hettie Judah

Housekeeper is the latest in a long line of exhibitions by Cathie Pilkington that have been housed by historic residences turned public museums. Through Pilkington’s site-responsive installations, visitors are encouraged to become involved in aspects of the museum’s collections, settings and trappings that are otherwise muted. Join us for an in-conversation between Cathie Pilkington and Hettie Judah, who wrote the text for her exhibition Weird Horses of 2023 at Karsten Schubert London, on Pilkington’s experience of working with a household’s tricky histories.

SPEAKERS

Hettie Judah is a writer and curator. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Frieze and The Times Literary Supplement, and writes a monthly column for Apollo magazine. Hettie is curator of the Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood which opened at the Arnolfini in Bristol on 9 March 2024, and is currently on show at VISUAL in Carlow, Ireland. Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents, now available in 16 languages. In 2022, together with Jo Harrison, Hettie co-founded the Art Working Parents Alliance - a supportive network and campaigning group for curators, academics, gallerists, technicians, educators and others working in the arts. She regularly talks about art and with artists for colleges, as well as museum and gallery events. As a broadcaster she can be heard (and sometimes seen) on programmes including BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Recent books include How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) (Lund Humphries, 2022) and Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones (John Murray, London, 2022/ Penguin, NY, 2023) Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood (Thames & Hudson, 2024) and a book for children The Secret Lives of Stones (Laurence King, 2025). Her next book How to Enter the Art World After will be published in 2026. She is currently working on a major book on art and women’s desire.

Cathie Pilkington is an artist whose work engages passionately and critically with the canonical history of figurative sculpture. Her work combines intensively modelled and painted sculptures within immersive installations comprising an array of diverse materials and studio furniture. As a sculptor and assembler her practice is porous, often absorbing and integrating content from archives, collections and historic settings. Her site-responsive installations are balanced ambivalently between chaos and precision and have been described as a kind of art historical fly-tipping. Recent situated projects include Exquisite Corpse (2024), the rehang of the cast collection at the Royal Academy’s Life Room, and Working from Home (2019), which made interventions in the display of the permanent collections of Dorich House Museum and Pallant House Gallery. Recent solo exhibitions include Rag & Bone, Kunstmuseum Brandts, Odense (2025-26) and Weird Horses, Karsten Schubert, London (2023). Recent awards include the Bridget Riley Fellowship, British School at Rome (2024) Born in Manchester in 1968, Cathie Pilkington lives and works in London. She has been The Keeper of the Royal Academy of Art London since 2019.

Complement your visit to the Freud Museum with one of our tours or talks led by staff, volunteers and guest speakers.

The talks are free with your admission ticket. Book your admission ticket now!

The event will be held on the first floor of the Museum during regular opening hours. Unfortunately, the Freud Museum does not currently have step-free access. Advance booking is highly recommended, as capacity is limited.

Concessions/Members/Patrons: Please show proof of eligibility/membership card on arrival.