For one brief week a selection of sculptures by the Ugandan artist Dr. Lilian Nabulime were on display in Somerset House. The exhibition featured wooden sculptures on loan from Newcastle University; a group of figurative reliefs developed with the Royal Overseas League Travel Fellowship during a one-month residency at the Patrick Alan Fraser Foundation in Scotland in 2008; a collection of delicate soap sculptures representing female and male genitalia and terracotta heads brought over from Uganda by the artist. Together these pieces represent a large body of Dr. Nabulime's socially engaged artwork, which raises awareness around sexual health, HIV/AIDS, and women's issues.
Nabulime's exhibition was held in one of the smaller rooms of this neoclassical Georgian building, featuring stripped wooden floorboards, two large sash windows, and two fireplaces. A difficult space to use, as the director of operation explained. The curators had to make free-standing panels to display the reliefs,...