My experience with the Ruwenzori Sculpture Foundation residency in Uganda 2011 has continued to influence my work.
As I witnessed, Ugandans are very imaginative in the utilisation and recycling of materials such as tyres, plastic containers and oil drums.
My two sculptures ‘Like Mother’ and ‘Beyond the Dance’ are made from a rusty old oil drum and are part of a ‘cut-out’ series influenced by the book ‘Beyond the Dance’ a compilation of ‘Voices of women on female genital mutilation’, edited by Violet Barungi and Hilda Twongyeirwe published in 2009. Although this harmful practice is declining a voice needs to be heard for those young girls still forced into this rite of passage “causing unbearable pain, irreversible physical and mental anguish and even death to their daughters, sisters and mothers” Ikebesi Omoding
