As we celebrate LGBT Pride this month, and the historicrecognition offered to gay and lesbian couple

As we celebrate LGBT Pride this month, and the historicrecognition offered to gay and lesbian couples by the U.S. Supreme Court, it isalso important to consider the many LGBT individuals across the world who arestill struggling for equality and social acceptance. In this light, I amparticularly pleased to share one of my recent acquisitions for Brooklyn’sAfrican art collection – a work by Adejoke Tugbiyele (American, b. 1977)entitled Homeless Hungry Homo.Adejoke Tugbiyele is an artist and activist of Nigeriandescent, whose work is deeply engaged with those marginalized in her homesocieties of Nigeria and the US. Her artistic practice comprises video andperformance, textiles, and intricately woven fiber sculptures, all of whichinterrogate issues of identity and status, particularly with regard to sexualorientation.Homeless Hungry Homo (2014) sits at an intersectionof these practices. Tugbiyele took discarded and low-value materials and wovethem into a figure imbued with the colors of the gay pride flag. At the sametime, the reclining figure sits in a gesture that could evoke a life lived onthe streets and wears a mask, concealing the subject’s true identity. She hasspoken of the work as a response to the all-too-prevalent tendency of gayNigerians to be disowned by their families and to face the prospect ofhomelessness and its attendant dangers. It is a powerful testament to astruggle that continues.Posted by Kevin D. Dumouchelle -- source link

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