Artist:
Leilah Babirye
Title:
We Are In Love
Year:
2018
Adress:
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Website:
www.socratessculpturepark.org:
The title, which translates to We are in Love in Swahili, stands as a call for the public recognition of LGBTQIA people persecuted throughout the world, from Babirye s native Uganda to local communities within the United States.
www.socratessculpturepark.org:
Carved with a chainsaw from a giant pine log, Leilah Babirye s Tuli Mukwano is a dual portrait of two figures existing outside the confines of gender binaries.
www.artnews.com:
Like her imposing sculptures, Leilah Babirye is still standing. And even better, she is thriving.
In 2015, Babirye fled Uganda after she was outed by a local publication as an activist and a member of the queer community. In her home country, being queer is considered a crime and can even be punished with a life sentence in prison. Since Babirye left, the consequences have only gotten worse. Last year, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, which includes punishment of death sentence for those convicted of aggravated homosexuality.
www.ysp.org.uk:
Leilah Babirye: My work is basically using trash, giving it new life and making it beautiful. It is always influenced by where I am working, I will use whatever is there. That s why the work always looks different, because I m not sure what I ll find. The wood I m working with here is a soft wood, whereas in New York it s usually pine, which is a harder wood. This gives the sculptures a different feel and contributes to their different personalities .
www.artnews.com:
Babirye ended up in New York, and has been based there for the nine years since, working as an artist as well as an activist. During a recent interview with ARTnews, it was clear that she had no regrets about her identity and that she wanted her artworks to similarly exhibit a sense of pride.
I want my sculptures to command attention, she said. I give them hairstyles and adornments, inspired by the queer community, so yes, it gives the feeling of: We re here, and we re not going anywhere .
In the Luganda language, one of the most widely spoken tongues of Babirye s homeland, the Ugandan queer community is referred to as abasiyazi, which translates to sugarcane husk, a reference to the fact that the community s members are thought of as discarded parts or rubbish. In Babirye s hands, however, trash from the streets, junkyards, bike shops and other places takes on a new meaning, becoming material used in artworks that explore sexuality, identity and human rights. The negative connotations that follow the word rubbish are turned positive.
Once I realized that you can use found objects and trash as art materials, I realized that I could let go of the negative meaning of the word. No one is rubbish, she stated. The process was very positive for me. I used to make work from pain, but now, I make it from joy.
www.ysp.org.uk:
The artist describes being guided by the wood itself, sketching the initial forms directly onto the sectioned tree for carving. Once carved, the figures are refined and their surfaces sanded to highlight the grains of the tree. The sculptures are then burned a deep black, the charring once used to make the works disappear but which is now a gesture of celebrating their beauty. Details of the sculptures are treated with a blowtorch before the surfaces are carefully waxed to acknowledge the skin of the piece and the tree from which it came.
The final stage is one Babirye calls taking the girls to the salon , in which found elements complete the sculptures, including bicycle chains, nails and copper from a dismantled boiler, as well as redundant stainless steel teapots.
www.tank.tv:
Leilah Babirye: I work according to my environment, and what inspired me here was the team I worked with. I m a person who likes being around people and creating my own community. The second inspiration was wood: there is a ton of wood at YSP. On my site visit on my first day there, just looking at all that wood pushed me to work. The title came from the unity that we had as a team. I m also looking at what s going on in the world. What can we do as LGBTQ+ people to be together? If we don t have unity, we can t do anything. I know the power and the strength of a team. Obumu comes from omu, which is one, and obumu is many. Obumu is a Luganda word from Buganda, in central Uganda, where I was born and raised.
www.ysp.org.uk:
At YSP Babirye made five large ceramic portrait-sculptures, each with its own personality. They are created from coiled clay and boldly shaped into fundamental forms in which traces of the artist s strong hands and fingers can be seen, before being fired and heavily coated with dense glazes that on firing contribute to the sculptures earthy, elemental power. Together the works will make a robust, rich statement in YSP s Chapel, built in 1744, around the same time that the beech tree began to grow. Painterly glazes contrast with chiselled, roughly-textured woodwork and metal objects associated with the art of blacksmithing. The artworks become a congregation that celebrates community in all its forms in this beautiful and contemplative space, which has witnessed key moments in now-forgotten lives for centuries.
Babirye frequently uses traditional African masks to explore the diversity of LGBTQIA+ identities, assembling them from ceramics, metal and hand-carved wood; lustrous, painterly glazes are juxtaposed with chiselled, roughly-textured woodwork and metal objects associated with the art of blacksmithing. This will be her first solo museum show in the world. It is a highly appropriate setting, given that Babirye was inspired as a student by the work of Yorkshire-born Henry Moore, whose work is on continual display in the grounds of YSP.
Babirye s practice originally began as activism, as a gay woman in her home country of Uganda, where being gay is illegal and risks the death penalty. Babirye s use of discarded materials references the prejudiced slang for a gay person in the Luganda language abasiyazi which is the part of the sugarcane husk that is rubbish, thrown out. Her practice integrates her own unique approach to making art with her culture and heritage and long-standing sculpture traditions such as mask making. Babirye acknowledged during her residence at YSP that she began to make art from real pain but now she feels blessed by the process and results of creativity.
Leilah spoke to Minnie Stephenson at Channel 4 about her work in March 2024.
www.wikipedia.org:
Leilah Babirye (born 1985) is a Ugandan artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Outed in her native country as a lesbian and underground LGBTQ+ activist, Babirye's work is of large-scale ceramics, wooden sculptures, African masks, as well as drawings and paintings on paper. Babirye has had exhibitions at the Gordon Robichaux Gallery and the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York, as well as the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. She has also produced work for Heidi Slimane for Celine's Art Project.
Babirye was born and raised in Kampala, where she attended Makerere University from 2007 to 2010 where she studied art. Babirye identifies as a lesbian woman, where her sexual orientation caused her to face discrimination and public humiliation as it is considered illegal to be openly homosexual in Uganda.
In 2015, Babirye was publicly outed in Uganda's press, was denied supervision from her tutors during her Master's at Makerere University due to her sexuality, and was disowned from her family. These events led Babirye to apply to artist residencies in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States, the latter accepting her application for a residency in Fire Island, a popular gay destination in New York's Long Island.
In 2018, Babirye applied for and received asylum in the United States with aid from the African Services Committee, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, and the African Human Rights Coalition who specialize in representing LGBTQIA+ refugees. After her residency at Fire Island, Babirye was connected with Sam Gordon, the owner of Gordon Robichaux gallery. Gordon was interested in Babirye's work and wanted to exhibit her art at his gallery, however, Babirye had only been drawing and painting so Gordon gave her his backyard as a space for her to work.
Babirye still resides and works in Brooklyn, New York today. She continues to represent and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as representing her Ugandan culture and queer identity. Babirye supports the Kakuma refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as working alongside the African Service Committee to advocate and assist LGBTQIA+ asylum-seeking people.
The title, which translates to We are in Love in Swahili, stands as a call for the public recognition of LGBTQIA people persecuted throughout the world, from Babirye s native Uganda to local communities within the United States.
www.socratessculpturepark.org:
Carved with a chainsaw from a giant pine log, Leilah Babirye s Tuli Mukwano is a dual portrait of two figures existing outside the confines of gender binaries.
www.artnews.com:
Like her imposing sculptures, Leilah Babirye is still standing. And even better, she is thriving.
In 2015, Babirye fled Uganda after she was outed by a local publication as an activist and a member of the queer community. In her home country, being queer is considered a crime and can even be punished with a life sentence in prison. Since Babirye left, the consequences have only gotten worse. Last year, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, which includes punishment of death sentence for those convicted of aggravated homosexuality.
www.ysp.org.uk:
Leilah Babirye: My work is basically using trash, giving it new life and making it beautiful. It is always influenced by where I am working, I will use whatever is there. That s why the work always looks different, because I m not sure what I ll find. The wood I m working with here is a soft wood, whereas in New York it s usually pine, which is a harder wood. This gives the sculptures a different feel and contributes to their different personalities .
www.artnews.com:
Babirye ended up in New York, and has been based there for the nine years since, working as an artist as well as an activist. During a recent interview with ARTnews, it was clear that she had no regrets about her identity and that she wanted her artworks to similarly exhibit a sense of pride.
I want my sculptures to command attention, she said. I give them hairstyles and adornments, inspired by the queer community, so yes, it gives the feeling of: We re here, and we re not going anywhere .
In the Luganda language, one of the most widely spoken tongues of Babirye s homeland, the Ugandan queer community is referred to as abasiyazi, which translates to sugarcane husk, a reference to the fact that the community s members are thought of as discarded parts or rubbish. In Babirye s hands, however, trash from the streets, junkyards, bike shops and other places takes on a new meaning, becoming material used in artworks that explore sexuality, identity and human rights. The negative connotations that follow the word rubbish are turned positive.
Once I realized that you can use found objects and trash as art materials, I realized that I could let go of the negative meaning of the word. No one is rubbish, she stated. The process was very positive for me. I used to make work from pain, but now, I make it from joy.
www.ysp.org.uk:
The artist describes being guided by the wood itself, sketching the initial forms directly onto the sectioned tree for carving. Once carved, the figures are refined and their surfaces sanded to highlight the grains of the tree. The sculptures are then burned a deep black, the charring once used to make the works disappear but which is now a gesture of celebrating their beauty. Details of the sculptures are treated with a blowtorch before the surfaces are carefully waxed to acknowledge the skin of the piece and the tree from which it came.
The final stage is one Babirye calls taking the girls to the salon , in which found elements complete the sculptures, including bicycle chains, nails and copper from a dismantled boiler, as well as redundant stainless steel teapots.
www.tank.tv:
Leilah Babirye: I work according to my environment, and what inspired me here was the team I worked with. I m a person who likes being around people and creating my own community. The second inspiration was wood: there is a ton of wood at YSP. On my site visit on my first day there, just looking at all that wood pushed me to work. The title came from the unity that we had as a team. I m also looking at what s going on in the world. What can we do as LGBTQ+ people to be together? If we don t have unity, we can t do anything. I know the power and the strength of a team. Obumu comes from omu, which is one, and obumu is many. Obumu is a Luganda word from Buganda, in central Uganda, where I was born and raised.
www.ysp.org.uk:
At YSP Babirye made five large ceramic portrait-sculptures, each with its own personality. They are created from coiled clay and boldly shaped into fundamental forms in which traces of the artist s strong hands and fingers can be seen, before being fired and heavily coated with dense glazes that on firing contribute to the sculptures earthy, elemental power. Together the works will make a robust, rich statement in YSP s Chapel, built in 1744, around the same time that the beech tree began to grow. Painterly glazes contrast with chiselled, roughly-textured woodwork and metal objects associated with the art of blacksmithing. The artworks become a congregation that celebrates community in all its forms in this beautiful and contemplative space, which has witnessed key moments in now-forgotten lives for centuries.
Babirye frequently uses traditional African masks to explore the diversity of LGBTQIA+ identities, assembling them from ceramics, metal and hand-carved wood; lustrous, painterly glazes are juxtaposed with chiselled, roughly-textured woodwork and metal objects associated with the art of blacksmithing. This will be her first solo museum show in the world. It is a highly appropriate setting, given that Babirye was inspired as a student by the work of Yorkshire-born Henry Moore, whose work is on continual display in the grounds of YSP.
Babirye s practice originally began as activism, as a gay woman in her home country of Uganda, where being gay is illegal and risks the death penalty. Babirye s use of discarded materials references the prejudiced slang for a gay person in the Luganda language abasiyazi which is the part of the sugarcane husk that is rubbish, thrown out. Her practice integrates her own unique approach to making art with her culture and heritage and long-standing sculpture traditions such as mask making. Babirye acknowledged during her residence at YSP that she began to make art from real pain but now she feels blessed by the process and results of creativity.
Leilah spoke to Minnie Stephenson at Channel 4 about her work in March 2024.
www.wikipedia.org:
Leilah Babirye (born 1985) is a Ugandan artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Outed in her native country as a lesbian and underground LGBTQ+ activist, Babirye's work is of large-scale ceramics, wooden sculptures, African masks, as well as drawings and paintings on paper. Babirye has had exhibitions at the Gordon Robichaux Gallery and the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York, as well as the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. She has also produced work for Heidi Slimane for Celine's Art Project.
Babirye was born and raised in Kampala, where she attended Makerere University from 2007 to 2010 where she studied art. Babirye identifies as a lesbian woman, where her sexual orientation caused her to face discrimination and public humiliation as it is considered illegal to be openly homosexual in Uganda.
In 2015, Babirye was publicly outed in Uganda's press, was denied supervision from her tutors during her Master's at Makerere University due to her sexuality, and was disowned from her family. These events led Babirye to apply to artist residencies in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States, the latter accepting her application for a residency in Fire Island, a popular gay destination in New York's Long Island.
In 2018, Babirye applied for and received asylum in the United States with aid from the African Services Committee, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, and the African Human Rights Coalition who specialize in representing LGBTQIA+ refugees. After her residency at Fire Island, Babirye was connected with Sam Gordon, the owner of Gordon Robichaux gallery. Gordon was interested in Babirye's work and wanted to exhibit her art at his gallery, however, Babirye had only been drawing and painting so Gordon gave her his backyard as a space for her to work.
Babirye still resides and works in Brooklyn, New York today. She continues to represent and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as representing her Ugandan culture and queer identity. Babirye supports the Kakuma refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as working alongside the African Service Committee to advocate and assist LGBTQIA+ asylum-seeking people.