Having spent his life traveling between his childhood home in recently independent Guyana and his hometown in monarchical London, Hew Locke knows a few things about cultural exchanges—especially the back and forth between colony and colonial power. What is the language of that power? Which colonial symbols continue to have visceral influence? (The British coat of arms, naval ships, royal souvenirs …) Locke toys with these delicate themes, searching through historical archives and artifacts to create his loaded installations. Traveling from the U.K., “Here’s the Thing” is one of Locke’s largest retrospectives yet. —E.C.