Hossein Valamanesh, Iranian-Australian artist known for poetic assemblages, dies at 73

Hossein Valamanesh, an Iranian-born Australian artist whose practice spanned five decades, has died. His work explored spirituality and nature through poetic studio assemblages and subtle public installations. Valamanesh emigrated from Iran to Australia in 1973 after graduating from fine art studies in Tehran in 1970. He attended the South Australian School of Art in 1977. His early career included collaboration with renowned theater director Bijan Mofid. Notable works include 'The love circles his own heart' (1993), featuring stretched white silk inspired by Rumi's poetry, and 'In Memory of Snow' (2000), a silk house installation created for the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial in Japan's Niigata prefecture. This site-specific work was installed in a beech forest behind the Hoshitomorinouta Museum, accompanied by ghostly white ladders among trees. Gallery works included 'Ricefield' (1997), a grid of colored rice embedded in wax, and 'The Untouchable' (1984), a shrine-like floor installation with black hessian, sand bowls, and a central oil burner. Valamanesh collaborated with his wife Angela Valamanesh on public projects including '14 Pieces on North Terrace' (2005), a fountain in Adelaide featuring shapes evoking Ichthyosaur dinosaur vertebrae, and delicate ginko plant-inspired gates for Adelaide's botanic gardens in 2011. A solo retrospective titled 'Puisque tout passe (This will also pass)' is currently presented at the Institut des Cultures d'Islam in Paris.