Sasha Huber

Sasha Huber (b. 1975) is a visual artist of Swiss-Haitian heritage. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, she currently lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. Huber’s work is primarily concerned with history’s influence on the present and focuses mainly on the ramifications of colonialism. She’s sensitive to the subtle threads that connect historical attitudes to modern outlooks, and works with performance-based interventions, video, photography, publications, graphic design and archival material.

Sasha Huber

She sees the compressed-air staple gun as a symbolic weapon, capable of producing visually arresting works with the potential to renegotiate unequal power dynamics. She is known for her artistic contribution to the long-term project “Demounting Louis Agassiz”, which promotes awareness of racist views of the Swiss-born Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who was a pioneering thinker of scientific polygenism. Using her voice and body to mediate the lasting effects of historical events, Huber’s work attempts to heal ruptures caused by colonial inheritance and help viewers step into the shoes of those who came before.

She has participated in international exhibitions, including the 29th São Paulo Biennale in 2010, the 19th Biennale of Sydney in 2014, and the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. She’s also undertaken several artist residencies with her regular collaborator, Petri Saarikko.

She holds an MA in Visual Communications from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and is currently undertaking doctoral research at the Department of Art at Aalto University in Helsinki.

“For me, working with the staple gun has become a way of symbolically stitching wounds together, creating reflective and three-dimensionally appearing ‘pain-things’.”