Hossein Valamanesh

Hossein Valamanesh AM (2 March 1949 – 15 January 2022) was an Iranian-Australian contemporary artist who lived and worked in Adelaide, South Australia.

He used natural materials, such as ochres, sand and stones, as well as leaves, branches, and twigs, and drew inspiration from Sufi philosophy and Persian poetry,[3] in particular that of the poet Djalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî (aka Rumi).

[6] His 1997 combined performance, photographic, and sculptural work Longing, belonging, which involved burning a Persian rug in the outback to explore the migrant experience, is in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW[7][3] In 1998 he completed a large public artwork in Adelaide, Knocking from the inside, on the northern plaza of the Intercontinental Hotel on North Terrace.

[2] Angela and he together created An Gorta Mor, the Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine (1999), at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney.

The monument, one of many memorials to the catastrophe around the world, is incorporated into the wall surrounding the Barracks and "ironically, stands on the site of the original kitchens" there.

The table, bowl, tools, and utensils are cast in bronze, and the names of 420 women who arrived as famine orphans are etched into the glass part of the memorial walls.

[3] Hossein and Angela were commissioned by the City of Adelaide to create the sculpture to replace the Lavington Bonython fountain that had occupied the site from 1965.