Habit Bodies - Zara Asgher & Laura Hasanen

Habit Bodies is an artistic project by two creators exploring the relationships between embodied histories, gender, and place.

Laura Hasanen (USA/FI) and Zara Asgher (PK) are visual artists and art educators working in Helsinki. The artists have collaborated as a duo since 2022. Hasanen and Asgher work with video performance, text, and installation. Their practice engages with the relationships between gender, sexuality, and power.

Habit Bodies examines the relationships between embodied histories, gender, and place. The work focuses on the friction that arises when gendered behavioral patterns are challenged or resisted. Breaking these norms can feel like hitting a wall - a relentless and deeply rooted barrier that reveals the depth of habits and learned ways of being.

Habit Bodies uses the family as a framework for examining these friction points. The artists explore gestures, body language, and storytelling as ways to understand how these moments have shaped their relationship to gender and place. The work speaks to family expectations and awkward failures. Two bodies attempt to writhe, evade, reject, and even adapt to the repetition of corrective gestures, striving to straighten their clumsy existence.

The exhibition features a sign-language guided tour in Finnish on Saturday, 6.6.2025 from 1-2 p.m.