Leilah Babirye, Tuli Mukwano (We Are in Love) III, 2025. Glazed ceramic, wood, bicycle tire inner tubes, and found objects. 28 x 16 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (71.1 x 41.9 x 21.6 cm). Courtesy the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York; Gordon Robichaux, New York; and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Paris, London, Marfa. Photo by Olympia Shannon. © Leilah Babirye
Leilah Babirye, Nakawaddwa from the Kuchu Ngabi (Antelope) Clan, 2021. Glazed ceramic, wood, wax, wire, bicycle chain, and found objects. 33 5/8 x 14 x 13 5/8 inches (85.4 x 35.6 x 34.6 cm). Courtesy the artist; Gordon Robichaux, New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York; and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Paris, London, Marfa. Photo by Stephen White & Co. © Leilah Babirye
The evocative, adorned sculptures of Leilah Babirye (b. 1985 in Kampala, Uganda) feature the artist’s inventive reuse of debris with her deft carving of wood and work with ceramics. She uses the metal gears and chains of bicycles to create elaborate headdresses and jewelry and braids, and the rubber inner tubes of bicycle tires to form long tresses that mingle with the burnt-black angles of her carved sculptures and the colorful glazes of her bulbous ceramic forms. For the ICA, Babirye premieres a new body of sculptures inspired by the idea of the queer wedding. Each sculpture adopts the role of bride, groom, ring bearer, flower girl, bridesmaid, groomsman, or guest in a vivid installation that is both wedding ceremony and celebration. The sculptural figures range in scale—from monumental heads atop tall poles and scaffold-like structures representing lovers, to rows of miniature “royal guards,” representing protectors of the queer community. For Babirye, who fled Uganda after being outed as gay, the exhibition continues her commitment to uplift LGBTQ identities through her singular, striking sculptural practice. The exhibition will be accompanied by the artist’s first book.