Liz Kobusinge & Darlyne Komukama

Liz Kobusinge (b. Uganda) is a self-taught artist from Kampala, Uganda, who creates multidisciplinary work exploring mental health and the interior worlds of Black women. Her practice developed as a way to cope with anxiety and depression, positioning art-making as both healing and documentation.

Recently, she has been working with handmade bark cloth paper, adapting techniques from Ugandan artist Sheila Nakitende. She views this process as "performance of memory," layering handmade dyes, ink, and video to explore how skin holds and disperses memory. The fragile, degrading materials reflect the ephemeral nature of memory and lived experience, particularly around familial bonds. Kobusinge learned bark cloth papermaking in 2019 during a depressive episode, finding the ritual therapeutic. During her time with the edition ~ verso team, Liz expanded on her paper making practice in deep relation to printmaking and the marks metal retain. Her evolving practice centers on self-hood and autonomy, documenting how people "make peace" as a way to live.

Darlyne Komukama (b. Uganda) is a self-taught photographer and multi-media artist who works mostly collaboratively to investigate and edify the things she cares about; femininity, blackness and connectedness. Her feminist ideals are vital to her projects and she will be found working with other women to make some cool shit for even more women to enjoy. Her photographs are full of regal, statuesque Black women, colour and a call back to the natural world.

Her visual art projects include; The Salooni, a multi-media roving installation made together with three Ugandan women, investigating and celebrating Black hair, Our Things, a video archive installation made with one other Ugandan woman collecting stories about similar Ugandan experiences, and, Penthouse, a rage room on a rooftop in the middle of downtown Kampala where Kampalan women could safely express and manifest their rage for Kla Art 2018. Her projects, Decay and Cardi Monáe, serve as sonic explorations.

As a DJ (Decay), she is interested in feeling and sharing the joy of the power of the femme. Whether she's playing trap, dancehall, ballroom or the stankiest twerking music, it's in service to freedom for the femme body and spirit. With Cardi Monáe, as a producer, she is interested in translating her artistic pursuits, which include photography, videography and installation art, as well as her influences into music.

Her work has appeared on CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Quartz and OkayAfrica. Her work has also been shown at the Southbank Centre in London as part of the Africa Utopia Festival, Constitution Hill in Johannesburg as part of the Being Her(e) Exhibition, the Chale Wote Festival in Jamestown in Accra, the Africa Bass Cultural festival in Ouagadougou and at multiple locations in Kampala, Uganda.