Art & Cultural Advocacy

VitiligoDrawingProject:PartofUs(2021)

Using hyperrealist portraiture to challenge stigma, reclaim presence, and humanize difference.

The Vitiligo Drawing Project: Part of Us was one of Muundo Foundation's earliest and most formative art-based advocacy interventions. Conceived and led by artist Martin Senkubuge (Quid), the project used hyperrealist charcoal portraiture as a public language for confronting stigma, dismantling myths, and restoring dignity to people living with vitiligo in Uganda.

At a time when vitiligo remained widely misunderstood - often conflated with contagion, spiritual punishment, or social shame - Part of Us positioned art not as decoration, but as public evidence. The project asserted a simple but radical proposition: people living with vitiligo are not anomalies or exceptions; they are part of us.

Context and Rationale

In Uganda, vitiligo is surrounded by deeply entrenched cultural myths and misinformation. Individuals with visible depigmentation often experience public staring, exclusion, job discrimination, family breakdown, and psychological distress. Despite affecting an estimated 1-2% of the population globally, vitiligo has received little sustained public education or culturally grounded advocacy.

The Part of Us project emerged in response to this gap - not through medical campaigning, but through cultural intervention. By placing vitiligo bodies at the center of aesthetic attention, the project disrupted dominant narratives that associate difference with defect or shame.

Artistic Method: Hyperrealism as Advocacy

The project employed hyperrealist charcoal drawing - a discipline defined by extreme detail, scale, and emotional intensity. Rather than idealizing or softening its subjects, the portraits rendered vitiligo with precision, intimacy, and presence. Every line, texture, and contrast insisted on visibility without spectacle.

Hyperrealism was intentionally chosen as an advocacy tool: its photographic intensity compelled prolonged looking, challenging viewers to confront their assumptions and discomfort. These were not symbolic figures; they were real individuals from Kampala, rendered with care, authority, and respect.

Visible Presence

Research and Community Engagement

Prior to production, the project undertook a research and listening phase that ensured the work was not speaking about people with vitiligo, but from within their lived realities:

Lived Experience

Engagement with individuals living with vitiligo and leaders from the Vitiligo Association of Uganda.

Public Perception

An online survey with over 1,000 responses revealing widespread folklore and misconceptions.

Community Dialogue

Informal interviews and conversations that shaped the visual approach and dialogue.

Public Exhibition and Dialogue

Part of Us culminated in a multi-day public exhibition at Goethe-Zentrum Kampala in April 2021. The exhibition brought together art audiences, members of the public, cultural practitioners, and people living with vitiligo in a shared space of encounter.

Beyond display, the exhibition functioned as a site of conversation. Facilitated discussions accompanied the works, allowing participants to ask questions, share experiences, and confront myths directly. Art became an entry point for education, empathy, and social reflection.

Impact and Significance

Narrative shift: Reframed vitiligo associated with fear into one of humanity and strength.

Cultural legitimacy: Positioned vitiligo discourse within respected cultural institutions.

Visibility with dignity: Centered people with vitiligo as collaborators and subjects of authority.

Foundation for future work: Established visual and ethical principles guiding Muundo today.

As Muundo Foundation's first major public art intervention, Part of Us set the tone for the organization's long-term approach: using culture to intervene where policy and medicine alone cannot - in the realm of perception, belief, and belonging.