It’s easy to take the abundance of local materials available in Uganda for granted. But for Birungi Kawooya, a Ugandan-British artist based in the UK, staple materials like lubogo (bark cloth) and banana fibre were not previously available. They were materials she grew up with and that defined art in her home. They offered a unique visual language because of their stunning textural qualities and their cultural significance in Uganda.
During her residency with 32° East, Kawooya has relied on these materials to process, visualize, and release past trauma. To do this, she made a triptych of self-portraits on lubogo of various colors. One recreates a familial trauma that left her feeling invalidated and uses lubogo as a metaphorical shroud to lay the past down with care. In this piece she is able to portray hurt and anger where before she would have framed it in positivity, something she refers to as a one-sided experiment as each side of the emotional spectrum is part of black womxnhood. In the second piece, she showcases herself in the present, supported by her resting self. Rest becomes essential to wellness in the present and moving on from the past. In the third piece, in the future, she imagines herself as strong, agile, and elevated. in this portrait she is in movement and moved on from the cocoon that encompassed a depressive era. This triptych was showcased at the Njabala Annual Exhibition at Makerere Art Gallery, along with an installment of a space where people were encouraged to rest on the day of exhibition. Following this collection, her final installation is a pyramid made from lubogo with equilateral sides for structural integrity. The pyramid houses a space that invites the audience to enter and rest.
Rest, well-being and mental health are core themes in Kawooya’s work. She began practicing self-portraiture as way to hold conversation with herself. This equipped her to better engage in dialogue about mental health and black womxnhood. Digging into mental health, well-being, and the diasporic experience has required vulnerability around vital questions of identity. Feeling safe, welcome, and appreciated by the artist community at 32° East and around the Njabala Foundation has made for a meaningful experience. “I feel like I’m being seen for who I am in my entirety. As I truly am,” she says. Feeling accepted reaffirms her as an artist and reaffirms that there is more than one way of being Ugandan. That barriers of distance and language don’t have to diminish her identity. She plans to carry her residency experience back into the spaces where she tutors art in the UK to help others through similar self-reflection as part of the artistic process.
Written by Gloria Kincoco.