Sasha Huber (b. 1975) is a Helsinki-based contemporary artist who explores colonial and postcolonial power structures through the experiences of African and Caribbean diasporas.
Through photography, film, site-specific performance, and research-based methods, she examines practices of memory, racial categorization, and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.
Sasha Huber has participated in several of Botkyrka Konsthall’s exhibitions and programs, including: Huskurer / Remedies with Petri Saarikko, 2011 , Fittja Open 2011, Transatlantiska Resor / Transatlantic Passages: Agassiz, Haiti and Africa in the works of Sasha Huber, 2011, Efter arken en ö – Rapporter från Team B, 2013, and Matters of the Heart – en resa in i konstsamlingen, 2023.
In 2013, Sasha Huber was invited to create an artistic work for the elderly care home Tornet in Botkyrka Municipality. The artist produced light installations based on family photographs from Botkyrka residents in Circles of Light, 2014.
Transatlantic Passages:
Agassiz, Haiti and Africa in the Works of Sasha Huber
Botkyrka Konsthall, 2011
The exhibition Transatlantic Passages was the first to present the Swiss-Haitian artist Sasha Huber on a larger scale to a Swedish audience. Visitors were introduced to several major installations in which postcolonial questions were re-examined and updated for the 2010s.
A mountain peak in the Swiss Alps receives a new name, and a solidarity ribbon in Haiti’s two colours speaks of compassion for a people who have lost almost everything. With modest means for a profound cause, and using her own life story as a central thread, Sasha Huber builds a practice that is equal parts activism and poetry.
In the work Rentyhorn, Huber renames a mountain that previously bore the name of Louis Agassiz, a well-known scientist and racist from the late 19th century. The mountain’s new name, Rentyhorn, honours Agassiz’s slave Renty, who during his lifetime was forced to serve as a model and supposed “proof” of the Black race’s inferiority.
For the installation at Botkyrka Konsthall, the portrait of Agassiz was replaced with another prominent white explorer, Christopher Columbus. Columbus became Huber’s first portrait in the series Shooting Back, in which each image is created through tens of thousands of shots from a semi-automatic staple gun, Huber’s own version of action painting.
The works Haiti Chérie and The Solidarity Ribbon respond to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. A few weeks after the catastrophe, Huber carried out a performance on a frozen, snow-covered sea in Finland. Snow angel after snow angel becomes a symbol of grief and lost lives, but also of solidarity and hope.
Sasha Huber, Transatlantic Passages: Agassiz, Haiti and Africa in the Works of Sasha Huber, Botkyrka Konsthall, 2011 Photo: Isabel Löfgren
Efter arken en ö – Rapporter från Team B /
After the Ark, an Island – Reports from Team B
Botkyrka Konsthall and the Finnish Institute in Sweden, 2013
The artists in the exhibition After the Ark, an Island: Reports from Team B approached questions such as: if a landscape were sound, what would its music be? How might a life, lived by an animal or a human, be translated into a series of images? And if fascism were to re-emerge in a country, what would happen if we also allowed animals to vote?
The participating artists in the exhibition were Terike Haapoja, Sasha Huber, Antti Laitinen, Jani Ruscica, and Salla Tykkä. The exhibition was co-produced with the Finnish Institute in Stockholm.
Sasha Huber, Trophy III, 2011, Opening: Episod 2 i Botkyrka konsthall. Photo: Sanna Tiren
Matters of the heart – en resa in i konstsamlingen /
Matters of the Heart – A Journey into the Art Collection
Botkyrka Konsthall, 2023
Matters of the Heart was an exhibition that highlighted Botkyrka’s art history and presented works from the municipality’s art collection. It offered a journey through different time periods and artistic expressions, telling the story of how art can grow with and out of a place.
The exhibition featured newly acquired works by Botkyrka-based artists Maja Bakken, Kamal Ben Ali, Darya Efrat, Ellen Gustavsson, Anna Julkunen, Lizette Lönnhammar, Tsandra Mageba Isaacs, Agija Mikelsone, and Saba Tadele.
It also looked back at a selection of works from the art collection by Hanna Al-Haek, Rezan Arab, Karin Berglund, Liselott Bjurgard Wassborg, Roland Book, Harry Carlsson, Chenia Ekström, Carin Ellberg, Bim Eriksson, Gösta Gierow, G.J., Sasha Huber, Walter Huber, Bert Jonsson, Martin Karlsson Tebus, Lars Isacson, Jaana Kokko, Bergliot Kvarnare, Bengt Lindström, Pontus Ljungberg, Tova Mozard, Birgitta Nehrman, Per Nicklasson, Charles Njau, Susanne Nygårds, Lars Pirak, W Rama, Esther Shalev Gerz, Radoslaw Stypczynski, The Sober & Lonely Institute for Contemporary Art, They Are Here, Anne Traegde, and Sven Xet Erixson.
In Matters of the Heart – A Journey into the Art Collection, we encounter artworks and stories that together form a distinct and unique art history.
Sasha Huber participated in the exhibition with the work Baby Doc, 2004. In the series Shooting Back, she holds historical figures, such as the Haitian ex-dictators Papa Doc and Baby Doc, as well as the conqueror Christopher Columbus, accountable for their actions by literally “shooting back” at them with a staple gun. The result is powerful depictions of these men, created as two-dimensional sculptural images on abandoned pieces of plywood. The work is part of Botkyrka Municipality’s art collection.
To the left: Sasha Huber, Baby-Doc, 2004. To the right: Charles Njau, Moonlight Rabbit, 1984, in the exhibition Matters of the heart, Botkyrka konsthall, 2023.
Sasha Huber, Circles of Light, 2014, elderly care home Tornet, i Botkyrka kommun. Photo: Sasha Huber
In 2013, Sasha Huber was invited to create an artistic intervention for the elderly care home Tornet in Botkyrka Municipality. The artist produced light installations based on family photographs from Botkyrka residents in Circles of Light, 2014.
Sasha Huber chose to bring the history of the place and its people into her artistic work, and decided to work both inside the care home, across its different units, and outdoors with light. She took the photographic image as her starting point, seeing it both as a memory and as a seed for something new.
By collecting family photographs from residents of Botkyrka and using them as templates for creating lamps for the care home, she sought, in a double sense, to shed light on the roots and identities that have taken hold and continue to branch out within the municipality.
In connection with the public art commission for the elderly home Tornet in Botkyrka Municipality, the art project was documented in a publication with the same title. The publication was released by Labyrint Press and is available to read in Botkyrka Konsthall’s artist book library, Labyrint.
Sasha Huber
Circles of Light
Labyrint Press, 2013
The artist duo Sasha Huber and Petri Saarikko spent a residency period in Fittja from January to March 2011. Their project Huskurer / Home Remedies was rooted in their own multicultural backgrounds in Haiti, Switzerland, and Finland, as well as in Fittja’s rich ethnic diversity.
Sasha and Petri aimed to collect and document knowledge of traditional home remedies before they are forgotten. These could be personal or shared memories and stories, ranging from healing methods to lullabies and recipes.
During Fittja Open 2011, the project was presented as a video work and in the publication Huskurer / Remedies, released by Labyrint Press.
Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko
Huskurer / Remedies
Labyrint Press, 2011
A small book that highlights the wonderful aspects of cultural diversity through stories about home remedies and cultural practices found across the world.
Huskurer / Remedies is available in Labyrint at Botkyrka Konsthall.
Residence Botkyrka is supported by Botkyrkabyggen.