On Remembering with Sasha Huber

Sasha’s exhibition You Name It at London’s Autograph brings together a decade’s worth of work, prompted by the campaign Demounting Louis Agassiz. Initiated in 2007 by Swiss historian and activist Hans Fässler, the campaign seeks to redress the legacy of the Swiss-born glaciologist and racist Louis Agassiz. Sasha is also part of  Autograph’s commissioning project Amplify – Stranger in the Village: Afro European Matters with a new work in her series The Firsts – Tilo Frey, commemorating the Swiss-Cameroonian politician who campaigned for women’s rights and suffrage in Switzerland; and in Khadija Saye: You Are Missed, honouring the late artist, activist and carer who died alongside her mother in London’s Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

I was fortunate to spend the day with Sasha as we walked through her exhibition and she explained the process behind each piece. We talk about Sasha’s practice, how art to quote Sasha ‘allows her to renegotiate history’ We talk about contested histories, naming, de-naming renaming landmarks with Louis Agassiz’s name.  We talk about Sasha’s use of staple guns in her practice. How Sasha’s art has become part of a collective and collaborative tool for reparative justice. And finally, what happens to art beyond exhibition, where does it go, who gets to benefit from it?

‘A Holding up the Ladder Production in collaboration with Autograph’

 Credits:

From an original idea by Matshidiso
Interview recorded at Autograph
Guest - Sasha Huber
Interviewer - Matshidiso
Closing Music, Before the Tide by Brandy Butler
Filmed and Edited  - Sam Allan
Camera Assistant  - Hector Ricky Zepeda

Links:

Purchase Sasha Huber’s book, You Name It

Sasha Huber exhibition details

Sasha Huber Autograph commissions:

1 - Amplify – Stranger in the Village: Afro European Matters,  The Firsts – Tilo Frey

2 - Khadija Saye - You Are Missed

Descendants of Renty Taylor, Tamara Lanier

Kiffe ta race podcast on Switzerland (French) 

Artist on Sasha’s playlist Sophia Mitiku

Follow Sasha Huber
http://www.sashahuber.com/ 

Follow Autograph
https://autograph.org.uk/
www.instagram.com/autographabp/