Leilah Babirye, We Have A History, de Young Museum, San Francisco
Installation Views, Leilah Babirye, We Have A History , photo Grey Dey
Timespace Transcendence in Leilah Babirye's We Have A History
By: Grey Dey
Arriving at Leilah Babirye's solo exhibition, "We Have a History," at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (found on the second floor surrounded by the African Collection), is to collapse into one's interior space and free-fall into a non-linear eternity where multiple possibilities co-exist. We are immediately struck by the scale of some of the sculptures and the juxtaposition of traditional stylizations of Sub-Saharan African masks and the contemporary use of unconventional and found materials. Babirye's sculptures simultaneously reference these historical African aesthetics, along with Queer speculative utopic global futurisms, and our present cultural zeitgeist of identity and migration politics, and their persistent conflicts.
(L) Leilah Babirye "Omugole Omukyala Namirembe Kaddulubale (Peaceful Bride of Mwanga II)," 2020 Wood, wax, nails, wire, glue and found objects, (96 1/8 x 36 5/8 x 11 3/4 in. (244.16 x 93.03 x 29.84 cm) Collection of Steve Corkin & Dan Maddalena
(R) Leilah Babirye "Nakatiiti from the Kuchu Grasshopper Clan," 2020 Wood, copper, nails, found objects, 63 3/4 x 29 1/2 x 8 in. (161.93 x 74.93 x 20.32 cm) Courtesy Gordon Robichaux, New York
Her burned, blackened, and wax-burnished wood sculptures are fully transformed as materials, like frozen blackened lava formations shaped from violent, emotional rivers of red and orange molten passion. Her ceramic-based sculptures also reference the fiery furnace of creation, as rich applications of multiple glazes create their own flows across the surfaces of earthen clay. These totemic portraits are then extravagantly embellished with surprising and fantastic scavenged materials. Her expressive works include old inner tubes, bike chains, tin can lids, and scrap metal that are headed towards or already accumulating in junkyards. These are visceral offerings at various scales: sensual, exuberant, and intrepidacious.
(L) Leilah Babirye "Namasole Naluggwa (The King's Mother)," 2019 Glazed ceramic, wood, metal and found objects, 47 1/2 x 18 x 10 in. (120.65 x 45.72 x 25.40 cm) Collection of Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard, San Francisco
(R) Baawala from the Kuchu Mamba (Lungfish) Clan, 2022, glazed ceramic, bicycle tire inner tubes, and aluminum wire
The process of creating these works, often monumental in scale, is also visceral. Babirye deftly wields a chainsaw to carve into her large foraged pieces of discarded or fallen wood. She hand-builds her oversized clay totems, using a traditional coil and slip process. Wood is sanded, caressed, and buffed to a sheen with wax. Glazes are not spared, and are applied in thick coats, often intermingling with previous wet layers. Rubber is braided into locks of hair. Chains and assorted metals are hammered and cut, applied and nailed to create ornaments, jewelry, and veils. Babirye often "visits" her creations to sit and listen to what they are saying to her. In the show's large screen video, you can see Babirye caressing and even kissing a work in progress.
These intimacies with the works elicit a latent character or personality embedded within the materials that waits to be invoked by Babirye's intuitive prowess. In a Zoom interview, Babirye generously granted me, she told me that she does not go into the studio with a predetermined agenda, but rather begins from a place of spontaneous and joyful making that will become a conversation between her and the materials. She seeks a beauty and elegance that will carry with it a dignity, and extends that intention as she adorns the characters with ceremonial headdress, hair, and ornament. She only names the work when it reveals to her that it is finished and discloses to her its name. She declared that she is one hundred percent sure that, as she is making her art, it will be well-received and not misinterpreted. She is open to all understandings of her work, and agrees that if what you see is female, male, or non-binary, or ancestral or futuristic, it is all there for your interpretation.
Installation View, Leilah Babirye, We Have a History photo: Grey Dey
The repurposing of reclaimed materials is an intentional and direct response to the nationally internalized colonial regard for Queer peoples in Babirye's home country of Uganda. Queers in Uganda are commonly referred to as "abasiyasi," the native Lugandan word for the husk of sugarcane that is useless and therefore discarded. Barbirye reclaimed the term through metaphor, transforming what was once considered rubbish into something inherently beautiful and worthy of dignity. Much of the decorative and flamboyant hairstyles and accessories are inspired by the Queer community she so loves and represents.
Installation view of "Leilah Babirye: We Have a History", de Young, San Francisco, 2024.
There is also an experiential origin to Babirye's choice to work with traditional African masks. Babirye earned her B.A. in Art History and Sculpture from Makerere University in the Ugandan capital Kampala. In 2011, Ugandan queer rights activist David Kato was murdered. Mourners from the Queer community wore masks inspired by traditional African mask-making to conceal their identities. It was witnessing this powerful affective use of masks that effectively conflated art and activism that inspired Babirye to deploy traditional African masks and totems to carve out space for Queer inclusion in the historical past, the contested present, and the speculative global Queer utopic future. As curator of the African collection at the de Young Museum, Natasha Becker wrote, "It's not only about this monumentality and the size of the sculptures, but it's really about how much space Leilah Babirye is creating for queer people, for queer community. And that is quite extraordinary."
Leilah Babirye "Senga Muzanganda (Auntie Muzanganda)," 2020 Glazed ceramic, wire and found objects, 55 x 22 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (139.7 x 57.15 x 43.51 cm) Property of a Private Collection, Boston
We spoke of her journey to becoming an artist and coming out in Uganda, a country known for its hostility towards Queer expressions of identity. As an activist for Queer rights, while still living in Uganda, she was outed and televised, resulting in her disownment by her Muslim father. Babirye sought refuge in the U.S. in 2015 and was granted political asylum in 2018. Yet, she repeatedly insisted that she was privileged. Privileged to escape the expectations of family, and to be able to justify her refusal to veil as a working studio artist. Privileged to pursue art as her University degree without any pressure to make it a profitable income, and privileged to study with the leading women artists of Uganda. As she was when I first met her in 2021, after her artist talk and presentation for the BOFFO summer art residency in the Fire Island Pines, Barbirye was magnanimous, warm, and forthright.
There is so much to include in an analysis of Babirye's work. There is the personal emergence of an important Queer artist in post-colonial Uganda. Also, the diasporic experience of trans-Atlantic migration to another colonial culture, here in the racist and capitalist United States. And there is the resounding choice to channel her unbridled artistry to celebrate Queer joy and dignity in spite of her sacrifices and hardships. Her fearless insistence on global Queer liberation is embodied in these complex and deeply layered figurative works that emanate a self-awareness and love that is full of pride. Babirye is a force of innate genesis responding to an inherent explosive creativity driven by an effusive love that is filled with gratitude. I hope that you, too, will allow yourself to float in that limitless timespace of eternity in this felicitous exhibition and experience a cross-cultural transcendence that embraces humanity rather than dividing it.
Grey Dey is an MFA Candidate 2026 at The School of Art + Design, UIUC
We Have A History runs through May 3rd, 2026, at the de Young Museum, San Francisco
