Artist sets sights on New Zealand glacier

Thursday, February 19, 2015
Artist sets sights on New Zealand glacier

The visit of an international artist will draw attention to the name of a little-known South Island glacier.

Visual artist Sasha Huber has been awarded the prestigious Wellington international art residency. She will spend the next five months in New Zealand.

Ms Huber, who is of Swiss-Haitian heritage, is known for her contribution to the long-term project “Demounting Louis Agassiz”. Named after the prominent nineteenth century naturalist and glaciologist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who was also a proponent of scientific racism, the project campaigns to remove his name from significant landmarks such as the Agassiz glacier and Agassiz range on the west coast of the South Island.

Ms Huber has already created art projects calling for the renaming of the Agassizhorn in the Swiss Alps as Rentyhorn, in tribute to Renty, an enslaved person from the Congo who was photographic subject for Agassiz.

The New Zealand landmarks were both named by early European geologist Sir Julius von Haast.

Sasha Huber's creative practice spans a variety of media, including video, photography, performance-based interventions, and publications. She also uses a compressed-air staple gun as a medium to create series of images. The series Shooting Back – Reflections on Haitian Roots criticised individuals whose actions and decisions contributed to the historical and social conditions in Haiti, such as Christopher Columbus, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. More recently, her series Shooting Stars was dedicated to victims of gunshot assassinations perpetrated for political, ethnic, ideological or economic reasons.

While in New Zealand, Ms Huber will also continue a collaborative project with her husband Petri Saarikko exploring family-based knowledge of traditional folk remedies. The couple are based in Finland, where Mr Saarikko is director of Kallio Kunsthalle, a vibrant pocket of art in one of the most densely populated districts of Helsinki.

Sasha Huber has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the 19th Biennale of Sydney in 2014, and has also been invited to artist residencies in Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Australia. Ms Huber holds an MA from the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and is currently undertaking doctoral research on racism through the lens of art at the Department of Art at Aalto University, Helsinki.

Te Whare Hēra, the Wellington international artist residency programme, is a partnership between Wellington City Council and Whiti o Rehua – the School of Art at Massey University.

Contact for comment:
Ann Shelton, Associate Professor (Photography): 021 202 8879.

www.sashahuber.com
creative.massey.ac.nz/research/wellington-international-artist-residency

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