YOU NAME IT

Sasha Huber is a Helsinki-based visual artist and researcher of Swiss and Haitian heritage. Her creative practice explores colonial residues in natural spaces, highlighting the ways in which history is imprinted onto the landscape through acts of remembrance. Huber has produced work related to the Demounting Louis Agassiz campaign, challenging the terms by which we remember and asking how we do so.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 14 December 2022
Publisher: Mousse Publishing

Sasha Huber is a Helsinki-based visual artist and researcher of Swiss and Haitian heritage. Her creative practice encompasses performance, photography, film, mixed media, reparative interventions, and collaborations to investigate colonial residues left in the environment. Huber's projects conceive of natural spaces, such as mountains, lakes, glaciers, forests, and craters, as contested territories, highlighting the ways in which history is imprinted onto the landscape through acts of remembrance, including memorialization through naming and the erection of monuments.

For over a decade, Huber has produced work in relation to the cultural and political Demounting Louis Agassiz campaign, which seeks to redress the racist legacy of the Swiss-born naturalist and glaciologist. With her artworks, Huber challenges the terms by which we remember, asking not only who and what we memorialize, but also, and more importantly, how we do so.

Huber's work explores the relationship between memory, landscape, and power, and how these elements are intertwined in the construction of historical narratives and the preservation of cultural heritage. She uses her art to question the ways in which we remember and commemorate historical events, and to challenge the dominant narratives that shape our understanding of the past.

One of Huber's most notable projects is the Cultural and Political Demounting of Louis Agassiz campaign, which she has been working on for over a decade. The campaign seeks to redress the racist legacy of Agassiz, who was a Swiss-born naturalist and glaciologist who played a significant role in the colonization of the Americas. Huber's work in this campaign includes the creation of a series of sculptures and installations that challenge the ways in which Agassiz is remembered and commemorated.

For example, Huber has created a series of sculptures that resemble glaciers, which are meant to evoke the memory of Agassiz's work on glaciers and his contribution to the scientific understanding of ice. However, the sculptures are made of plastic and are designed to melt, highlighting the ways in which Agassiz's legacy is fragile and subject to the forces of nature.

Another project that Huber has worked on is the creation of a memorial to the Haitian Revolution, which took place in 1791 and resulted in the abolition of slavery in Haiti. The memorial is located in the town of Labadee, which was the site of a major battle during the revolution. Huber's memorial consists of a series of sculptures that evoke the memory of the revolution and the lives of the people who were affected by it.

Through her work, Huber seeks to challenge the ways in which we remember and commemorate historical events, and to promote a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of the past. She believes that art has the power to inspire change and to promote social justice, and that it is important to use art to address the legacies of colonialism and racism.

In conclusion, Sasha Huber is a talented and innovative visual artist and researcher who uses her art to explore the complex relationship between memory, landscape, and power. Her work in the Cultural and Political Demounting of Louis Agassiz campaign and the creation of the Haitian Revolution memorial are just two examples of the ways in which she uses her art to challenge the dominant narratives of the past and to promote a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of the past. Huber's work is a testament to the power of art to inspire change and to promote social justice, and it is an important contribution to the field of art and activism.

Weight: 924g
Dimension: 276 x 202 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9788867495498