Ugandan lesbian sculptor Leilah Babirye's totems and masks speak for and about LGBTQ Ugandans' and Africans' experiences.
The works have been sought after by art collectors and featured in public art displays and galleries worldwide.
Now, art enthusiasts can experience Babirye's works in her first U.S. solo museum exhibit, "Leilah Babirye: We Have A History," at San Francisco's de Young Museum, where they are currently on display through next Pride Month, with a closing date of June 22, 2025.
The exhibit features 12 of the 39-year-old artist's works displayed throughout the museum's historic African Art Collection. Three of the works were inspired by the gender fluidity of the Mali Dogon ancestral figure in the museum's African art collection and created especially for this exhibit, according to a news release from the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums.
The San Francisco Fine Arts Museums is the parent organization of the de Young and Legion of Honor museums.
"I'm honored and excited to have my first museum solo exhibition in the U.S. at the de Young Museum," Babirye wrote in an email interview with the Bay Area Reporter. "I'm happy that my work will have this level of visibility and accessibility."
Natasha Becker, curator of African Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, curates the exhibit. It is the second in a series of exhibitions in the museum's new African Art program. The program's first exhibit was last year's "Facing the Future," by South African queer artist, Lhola Amira.
"We Have A History" also features a short film, "The Fearless Art Practice of Leilah Babirye," () about Babirye's work and process in the gallery. A June 22 discussion between Babirye and Becker, "A Conversation with Leilah Babirye," is also available on the museum's YouTube channel.
This year, Babirye's work has been seen at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the United Kingdom and at the 60th International Art Exhibition organized by Adriano Pedros for the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Previously, Babirye exhibited her works in group shows at galleries and museums such as the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Parrish Art Museum in New York, the Hayward Gallery in London, and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien in Vienna, Austria, according to the release. Her masks and sculptures are also held in public collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Africa Centre in London, and the Sammlung Goetz, Munich in Germany, among other places. In 2022, she unveiled a site-responsive public artwork for "Black Atlantic," a Public Art Fund project at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York.
Evolution
Becker and Babirye have been colleagues since 2018 when Becker, 49, an ally, co-founded the Assembly Room, a New York City gallery and art space founded and run by independent curators.
Babirye was one of the first artists exhibited at the Assembly Room's gallery.
Three things impressed Becker about Babirye as an artist and her works.
She was taken by Babirye's training in, and use of, historical African traditions of sculpture, carving, and ceramics, and her introduction of modern techniques into her work, such as Babirye's "unconventional" use of a chainsaw and garbage to create her sculptures. Then there is her gender.
"She's also a woman," Becker said, pointing out, "whether it's in the West or Africa, sculptors are predominantly men."
Babirye was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda's capital. She studied art and sculpture at Makerere University, where she had the unique experience of being taught her craft by women sculptors, she told the audience at the recent discussion.
Babirye creates her masks and sculptures from wood, ceramics, and found objects. Trained in traditional African art techniques and well-versed in the Bugandan clan histories and historic masks from Africa, she incorporates modern practices and her queer eye into the totems and masks exploring the diversity of LGBTQ identities.
The Kingdom of Buganda is in Uganda, according to the museum's text describing the mask, Abambejja ba Kabaka (Sister of the King III), which is named after a member of the Buganda royal family and is denoted by the elaborate headdress. According to Being African, there are 46 Buganda clans. Babirye chose to explore clan names rather than family names because clan names do not change, according to the text. Totems represent clans, according to Being African.
"She's just really unconventional and pushing all these boundaries when it comes to the forms and the materials," Becker told the B.A.R.
The works themselves made an impression on Becker.
"Her sculptures have such a presence," she said. "It's like she really has captured the individual. It feels like you are standing in front of a portrait of someone you know.
"They are so powerful," she continued, "but collectively, they are also speaking to queer stories, of liberation, of struggle, of joy, of love, of challenge in this really bold way."
"It's been amazing to see the evolution of her work over the last few years," Becker said, "and to see her grow as an artist and become a much larger presence in the art world."
Beautiful trash
Babirye came to the United States in 2015 for the Fire Island Residency. It was the first time in her life she experienced freedom as a lesbian, she explained.
"My first impression of the U.S. was that everyone seemed so open-minded and happy," Babirye wrote. "They could express their sexuality and gender without fear."
Babirye decided to stay in New York City. She was granted asylum in 2018.
To get by during her first year in the Big Apple, Babirye collected trash cans, bike chains, and tires for her sculptures and to make money. As an asylum seeker, she wasn't allowed to work legally for 150 days, according to immigration experts.
The trash became a metaphor for abasiyazi, meaning "sugarcane husk," the part people throw out. It's Ugandan slang for queer people in the Luganda language.
"By reclaiming the trash, I am also reclaiming the term," she wrote to the B.A.R. "I am showing that we have value, and we are beautiful."
Babirye names her pieces after friends — drag queens and transgender people — in the Ugandan LGBTQ community.
"My goal is always to give people a sense of belonging through my work," she wrote.
Not far from home
Babirye keeps a close eye on what is happening in Uganda's LGBTQ community back home from her Brooklyn studio, and connects with queer Ugandans in the diaspora in New York City and through her travels.
Last month, LGBTQ Ugandan activists continued to fight back against the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023. Convening For Equality, a coalition of 22 Ugandan LGBTQ and ally organizations, appealed Uganda's Constitutional Court's decision upholding most of the law to Uganda's Supreme Court July 11. The coalition announced the appeal in a July 15 news release.
The appellants are asking the high court to overrule the Constitutional Court's decision, which allowed the law to remain largely in force, and to declare the law null and void, according to the release. The appellants are also asking the Supreme Court to issue a permanent injunction against the implementation of the law.
The B.A.R. has followed the development of the law since the first anti-LGBTQ bill, dubbed the Kill the Gays Bill, was introduced to Uganda's Parliament in 2009. In 2014, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a watered-down version of the bill, dubbed the Jail the Gays Bill because it dropped the death penalty. The Constitutional Court struck the law down due to technicalities later that same year.
Babirye told Becker during the discussion in June that she was inspired by some Ugandan LGBTQ activists who first wore rainbow masks in court in 2009.
"I started making masks just to hide our identity," she told Becker. "I've been growing from masks to statues. It's been a journey."
Babirye wrote to the B.A.R. that she became an LGBTQ activist working with Freedom and Roam Uganda and Icebreakers Uganda when she was in college from 2007 to 2010.
Ugandan LGBTQ activists fought against other bills that limited LGBTQ rights and access to vital health care services, such as HIV/AIDS, and other services for the community in the decade following the 2014 court striking down the anti-gay bill. The community also came under intensifying attacks due to the threat of the resurrection of the anti-gay law.
Anti-LGBTQ forces succeeded in 2023 with the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act, which includes the death penalty for so-called "aggravated homosexuality," among other penalties and fines. By signing the bill, Museveni stood in defiance against the U.S., World Bank, and other allied countries, which issued condemnations, restrictions, and sanctions, withholding billions in funding for Uganda.
"I will always be an LGBTQ activist, no matter where I am in the world," Babirye wrote to the B.A.R. "It's a very important part of my life and my artwork. I continue to be vocal because there is still progress to be made. I want to help people feel empowered."
Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or [email protected]
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