ABSTRACT
In 2015–2016. Matt Smith was Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This chapter explores the artist’s thinking that informed the residency and explores how, when he took a queer view of the museum, its heteronormative workings were exposed. The chapter covers outreach undertaken with LGBTQ+ groups during the residency, artistic interventions with the museum’s collections, and artistic responses created in response to the museum and its artifacts. Starting with the specific (LGBTQ+ people) and opening queer out to examine the norm critically and analyze hierarchical inequalities, the author sought to explore the reasons why queerness seldom entered the core business of museum interpretation.
