queerasfact: Queer artists 13/30 - Leilah BabiryeLeilah Babirye is a Ugandan artist living in Brookl

queerasfact: Queer artists 13/30 - Leilah BabiryeLeilah Babirye is a Ugandan artist living in Brooklyn, New York. While still living in Uganda in 2015, she was publicly outed as a lesbian in the press and the resulting discrimination lead to her seeking and receiving asylum in the United States. She now works with the African Service Committee to advocate for queer asylum seekers. Leilah works in ceramics, sculpture, drawing and painting. Her work deals with themes of queer and Ugandan histories and experiences and the legacies of British colonisation. She often uses found materials as a reflection of how the queer community is viewed in Uganda, referencing the Lugandan term ebisyaga, a derogatory term for a gay person referring to the husk of sugarcane, the part that is thrown away. Through using these materials, Leilah is able to create new value for them. Her work also contains intentional ambiguity, with many of the figures being without clear gender or sexuality. Of her work, she says, “My body of work is involved in representing the queer community; my community, so in a way, [this work] is honouring us as gay people. I decided to create a community of my own and give my queer sculptures clan names. When people see my work, the discussion will be about why I gave a clan name that is meant to be given to a male, to a sculpture that has hair, that has lipstick, earrings. To me, I feel like I’m presenting my community in a royal way, because we are also humans.”[Image descriptions: a ceramic sculpture on a white block, depicting a blue-glazed head with a tall, braided hairstyle made from bicycle tire inner tubes and small pieces of metal; a ceramic sculpture on a wooden blocks, depicting a green-glazed head wearing a three-tiered crown constructed from ceiling light fixtures and bike chains] -- source link

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