“From Haiti to Reparative Interventions”
Artist’s Talk by Sasha Huber
June 4, 2024, 6 pm
Chair: Maria Prokesz
SASHA HUBER is a Swiss-Haitian artist based currently in Helsinki, Finland. Huber considers in her practice the politics of memory and belonging in post-colonial contexts. Her works François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier and Mami Wata utilise the same technique of shooting a staple gun onto wood to two very different outcomes. Creating the former, she wields it as a weapon both obliterating and immortalising the dictator in harsh contrasts of metal on wood. Tellingly, the work comes from a series titled Shooting Back, which also contains portraits of Christopher Columbus and Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier. In the second work, the materials are obscured by a layer of red and blue evoking the Haitian flag. This one comes from the series Remedy for Life, which is focused on the element of water. Huber grew up beside the river Rhine and water is of personal significance to her: she found comfort in the presence of rivers and lakes after relocating to Finland and feels a connection to her maternal home of Haiti through the seas. The element of water is very prominent in Vodou as some lwa are believed to live underwater and others travel the ocean from Africa to Haiti whenever they are called during a ritual. In this piece, Huber uses staples as a means of stitching, healing colonial wounds and as a metaphor for traditions holding together a nation.
Together with Petri Saarikko Sasha Huber, she has been working on the project Remedies since 2010. The cycle considers methods of self-help and healing across various cultural contexts. In its numerous iterations, spanning several countries, Remedies has taken on differing shapes including site-specific installations, live performances as well as video works. The Haitian edition captures a ritual of healing including its staple elements such as lighting a fire as a beacon for the lwa, tracing the shape of a vèvè with cornflour to symbolise the spirits being called, singing, dancing and finally the act of healing one person. Distinctively, throughout the ritual a megaphone is passed around for people to share their remedies for various ailments: some crude, others humorous, but also a few genuine.
Patronage: Embassy of Switzerland in Poland
