Meet Birungi
As a well-being researcher, my mission is to support self discovery through art.
Playing with paper, sculpture and natural fibres indigenous to Uganda has inspired me to research the conditions for liberation and imagine living better with others. A freedom we all deserve.
Through my practice I want to help anyone who is burnt out and marginalised reclaim their nature as a human being. To flex the powerful uncertainty in ‘what if’ to find alternative resolutions and process complex emotions.
Inspired by Black feminists, Afro somatic movement and nature, my art is created through collective engagement and a passion to understand how we can be well in community.
These themes are central to my series ‘Sisters Need Sleep’, which portrays the comfort, safety and divinity of Black sisterhood. In my five-month residency in Uganda (with Njabala Foundation, 32° East funded by the Arts Council England), I invited womxn to rest; using natural fibres and sculptural installations to explore trauma resolution and well-being through self-portraiture.
My public artworks honouring Black womanhood; Peckham in Bloom (2022) and Black Womxn At Rest (2023), were informed by community workshops and commissioned by The World Reimagined and Kensington and Chelsea Art Week respectively. I have also exhibited with the Njabala Foundation, New Art Gallery Walsall, the Portico Library, the Hastings Contemporary, Hammersmith BID, Mediacom, the Collective Makers, CasildeArt, Black Women Art Network, and Simply Gorgeous salon.
Art has taught me how to treat myself better – to learn how to love myself and slow down. It's through this experience that I now lead Mindful African art programmes to help people work through their own anxiety and stimulate their imagination by connecting with African culture, ecology and nature.
Either surrounded by plants, water and woodland in my Thamesmead workshop, or in the safe spaces of community commissions, I’ve had the pleasure of hosting individuals, students and groups including Healing Justice London, University Arts London, Black Mind, Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre, Colours of Redbridge, Royal Borough of Greenwich and Peckham Platform.
I invite you to reclaim the space to rest, explore your curiosity and feel proud of who you are.
Come in, slow down and reimagine your story.