in 2023, Yrneh Gabon became the first artist-in-residence at The Museum of Black Civilizations, a national museum in Dakar, Senegal, where he initiated a body of work based on the boubou, an elaborate flowing caftan-like garment that is a manifestation of the spirit of traditional Senegalese fashion. The boubou’s African origins can be traced to the 8th century, and the word “boubou” is a French distortion of the Wolof word mbubb.

In essence, the boubou is both a metaphor for colonization; and, simultaneously, a sign of sartorial resistance against the imperative to adopt Western dress. Gabon designed three grand boubous with fabric selected from across the continent, and decorated them with dragonflies, a motif that first appeared in his work during the severe California drought of 2016. For Gabon, the dragonfly is a symbol of the precarity of life in a time of grave ecological crisis.

The exhibition Spirit Leads Me presents the boubous that Gabon designed at The Museum of Black Civilisations along with a series of visually rhythmic paintings in which they are depicted worn by himself and subjects the artist befriended during his trips to the African continent (such as the Senegalese twins Sena and Sana, and the Jamaican supermodel and fashion designer Lois Samuels).