Viewing  Leilah Barbirye’s lively cast of wood and clay figures at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

A troop of monumental figures in wood and clay by Leilah Babirye have taken up residence in Yorkshire Sculpture Park for her solo show, Obumu (Unity). The Ugandan artist axes, chisels, chainsaws, welds and scorches found materials to reference the pejorative term for a gay person in the Luganda language (“abasiyazi”, meaning “sugarcane husk” – something that is thrown away). Since she fled her country after being publicly outed in a local newspaper, momentum around her has been growing, with her work appearing at the Hayward Gallery, Whitworth and Parrish Art Museum, among other institutions in recent years, and the spirit of her sculptures has shifted along the way. “My work started off as serious activism, from really pain to now adoring who we are and just loving us… that’s the queer community,” she says. Each of her sculptures packs a punch.

Babirye spent the summer of 2023 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, creating her wooden figures from a fallen beech tree on site, as well as sculpting ceramic portrait sculptures, each imbued with their own personality. These now congregate inside the chapel, forming a lively community in the 18th-century building. Come along and join the throng.