Embodying Social Being | Dr Lilian Mary Nabulime | Almas Art Foundation: View Dr Lilian Mary Nabulime’s sculptures and installations addressing social pressures, women and children’s experiences, and empowerment.

Somerset House 17 - 23 April 2023 
Overview
Dr Lilian Mary Nabulime at her exhibition - EMBODYING SOCIAL BEING | Photos & Videos & Exhibitions | Almas Art Foundation |  Somerset House 
Somerset House https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/

Almas Art Foundation proudly presented Embodying Social Being, a showcase of works at Somerset House  by Dr Lilian Mary Nabulime, whose practice since the 1990s has profoundly explored the social conditions and lived experiences of women and children in Uganda. Describing herself as a “social being,” Nabulime uses sculpture as a means of reflection and empowerment, transforming themes of familial relations, social taboos, and stigmas surrounding HIV and womanhood into deeply human visual narratives.

Her works juxtapose reclaimed tree roots and monumental wood forms with found materials such as soda cans, chains, and plastics — a poetic act of reclamation and renewal that interlaces material, memory, and meaning. The showcase was accompanied by a virtual artist talk between Dr Nabulime and Martha Kazungu, chaired by Dr Polly Savage (SOAS), offering audiences a rare opportunity to engage directly with the artist’s powerful reflections on community, resilience, and creative activism.

Works
Press release

Almas Art Foundation is proud to present a showcase of works by Dr Lilian Mary Nabulime, “Embodying Social Being.” Since 1990s, Nabulime has built a body of work recording the societal pressures and its effects on women and children that is unique in its honesty and tenderness. Describing herself as a ‘social being’ continuously affected by the events faced by her community, her practice offers a subjective registry of these events, the ensuing emotions and pressures, always with a look to empowering her subjects. Through her work, Dr Nabulime delves into themes such as familial and social relations, taboos, stigmas around HIV infections and experiences of young women on campus. Nabulime’s works often juxtapose reclaimed monumental tree parts and roots with found and recycled materials such as soda cans, chains and plastic. Reclamation, recycling and working with found objects crafted by local artisans have been fundamental to her practice, allowing her to fold the stories behind these objects and their symbolisms into her works.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, Dr Lilian Nabulime trained at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art (MTSIFA) at Makerere University. Nabulime obtained her PhD at Newcastle University with her dissertation on “The Role of Sculptural Forms as a Communication Tool in Relation to the Lives and Experiences of Women with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.” She currently lives and works in Kampala, Uganda and is a senior lecturer at Makerere University alongside her busy studio practice.

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