ValamanesH Hossein ValamanesH Hossein ValamanesH ValamanesH MAry KnIghts, Director of SASA gallery at the University ‘My inspirations come from very personal experiences of South Australia, is a writer, curator and academic. like daily life . It’s like having a conversation with Hossein Valamanes In 2010 she was awarded a PhD by the University of Out of nothingness the world around you.’ – Hossein Valamanesh Tasmania for her thesis titled On the Brink of the Abyss, which focused on the nihilistic tendencies discerned in Mary Knights and Ian North Hossein Valamanesh draws on his Iranian heritage and the work of key Symbolist artists by critic J.K. Huysmans. experience of the Australian landscape and culture to Knights has worked in the Australian art sector for over create enigmatic artworks imbued with a disturbing fifteen years and has held arts management, curatorial beauty. Born in Tehran, he came to Australia in 1973 and academic positions in Tasmania, Western Australia aged 24, and has become one of the country’s most and South Australia. She has curated many exhibitions, significant contemporary artists. authored Irrunytju Arts based on twenty months working in Deceptively simple, Valamanesh’s work is often made the field, and written numerous essays and critical reviews with elemental substances, natural materials and found on contemporary art. objects – for example Persian carpets, an old photo of H his grandmother or a pair of worn shoes resonating with IAn north, artist, writer and curator, has a substantial cultural and personal associations. Inspired by Persian exhibition record in Australia and internationally, poetry and Sufi philosophy, ambiguous elements in including twelve solo exhibitions since 1986. He has also Out of nothingness Valamanesh’s work open up the play of the imagination, published extensively on Australian and contemporary art metaphysical questioning and quiet reflection. in journals, exhibition catalogues and books – including writing and editing books on major Australian artists Hossein Valamanesh: Out of nothingness traces the Dorrit Black, Hans Heysen, Margaret Preston and Kathleen development of this unique artist’s practice, demonstrating Petyarre. north’s areas of research include the impact its engagement with intense philosophical questions such of the Indigenous art revolution, interculturalism, new as the ephemerality of existence, and relationships approaches to the landscape and the developing field of between nature and culture. bioaesthetics, editing the book Visual Animals in 2007. He has held a range of senior positions in art museums ‘Valamanesh mines his own cultural history to and academia, including Head, South Australian School of investigate the human condition. His work prompts Art 1984–1993, and currently is Adjunct Professor at the Mary a sense of wonder, invites us to suspend disbelief, School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of to dream.’ – Sarah Thomas, in Hossein Valamanesh: a survey South Australia, and Adjunct Professor in the Department Knights (Art Gallery of South Australia, 2001) of History and Politics, University of Adelaide. ‘In many ways Valamanesh’s art is . beyond intellect, or intellectual explanation . As a body, and his work accumulates, just as the poems of a Ian great poet do. For those of us who have followed Valamanesh’s work each exhibition is a bit like North ISBN 978-1-74305-005-7 viewing instalments of an epic poem.’ – Ian Hamilton, Artlink, vol. 25, no. 3, 2005 9 781743 050057 h o s s e i n V a l a m a n e s h Wakefield Press Photography by: 1 The Parade West Kamran Adl: 8 Kent Town Shigeo Anzai: 72–73 South Australia 5067 Peter Fischer: 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50–51 www.wakefieldpress.com.au Clayton Glen: 64 Alistair Kell: 62–63 First published 2011 Michal Kluvanek: Cover, 4–5, 6, 10, 15, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38–39, 40, 41, 42, 52, 53, 54–55, 56, 57, 58, Text copyright © Mary Knights, Ian North and Hossein Valamanesh 2011 60–61, 65, 66–67, 70, 71, 78, 80, 81, 82, 85, 88, 92, 94, 97, 100, 101, Images copyright © Hossein Valamanesh 106–107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112–113, 114, 115, 118–119, 120, 121, 122–123, 126–127, 131, 132, 133, 134–135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair 142, 143, 144–145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152–153, 158, 159, 160, dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or 161, 162, 163, 164–165, 166–167, 168, 176 review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced Wend Lear: 154–155, 156, 157 without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the Ric Martin: 77 publisher. M. Michalski and B. Wojcik: 59 Mino Momeni: 124 Edited by Jessica Marshallsay, Wakefield Press Saul Steed: 130 Scans by Graphic Print Group, Adelaide Hossein Valamanesh: 7, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 47, 74, Designed by Liz Nicholson, designBITE 75, 83, 84, 98–99, 105, 116, 117, 128, 150, 169 Printed in China at Everbest Printing Co. Ltd Greg Weight: 104 Tadasu Yamamoto: 129 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Photographer unknown: 12, 125, 170 Author: Knights, Mary. Cover: Chai, as close as I could get, 1998, MDF, enamel paint, Title: Hossein Valamanesh: out of nothingness / Mary Knights and fluorescent light, Perspex, water, glass, tea, 90.5 x 39.5 x 39.5 cm, Ian North. edition of 5 plus A/P. Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland. ISBN: 978 1 74305 005 7 (hbk.). Contents page: Nesting (detail), 2005, digital print on watercolour Subjects: Valamanesh, Hossein, 1949– . paper, 113 x 134.5 cm (framed), edition of 5 plus 2 artist proofs. Iranian Australians–South Australia–Biography. Private collection, Sydney. Sculptors–Australia–Biography. Gallery 1 page: Love Is, 1981, clay, wood, straw, 51 x 41 cm, Collection Potters–Australia–Biography. of the artist. Other Authors/ Gallery 2 page: Lovers 2, 1997, lotus leaves on gauze, 50 x 45 x 3.5 cm. Contributors: North, Ian, 1945– . Collection of the artist. Dewey Number: 730.92 Last page: NO LOVE LOST, 2009, crown of thorn (Euphorbia Milii), paper, 70 x 220 x 4 cm. Private collection, Sydney. The authors would like to thank Hossein Valamanesh, Paul Greenaway, Christopher Rhys Jones, Michael Bollen, Jessica Marshallsay and the Hossein Valamanesh would like to thank the authors and Angela staff at Wakefield Press and Arts SA. Valamanesh. Hossein is represented by Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, and This series of books showcasing the works of South Australian living GRANTPIRRIE Gallery in Sydney. artists was initiated by the SALA Inc. Board and is published with the assistance of the Government of South Australia. This is the thirteenth Christopher Rhys Jones, emerging writer and artist, is currently a book in the series, following Annette Bezor: A passionate gaze, Richard student at Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia. Grayson; Kathleen Petyarre: Genius of place, Christine Nicholls and He was awarded a twelve-month mentorship by Arts SA to work with Mary Ian North; James Darling: Instinct, imagination, physical work, Daniel Knights, Ian North and Hossein Valamanesh on the development of the Thomas; Nick Mount: Incandescence, Margot Osborne; Ian W. Abdulla: 2011 SALA Book. Jones’s contribution included compiling a valuable Elvis has entered the building, Stephen Fox and Janet Maughan; Deborah database of Hossein’s artwork. Paauwe: Beautiful games, Wendy Walker; Michelle Nikou, Ken Bolton; Aldo Iacobelli: I k Painting, John Neylon; Julie Blyfield, Stephanie Radok and Dick Richards; Gerry Wedd: Thong cycle, Mark Thompson; Angela Valamanesh: About being here, Cath Kenneally; and Khai Liew, Peter Ward. h o s s e i n Valamanesh Out of nothingness Mary Knights and Ian North C o n t e n t s Profiling Hossein: a conversation with the artist Ian North 6 Gallery 1 19 Longing belonging Mary Knights 76 Gallery 2 97 Hossein Valamanesh Curriculum Vitae 171 Bibliography 174 Profiling Hossein: a conversation with the artist Preamble We like to know about artists we perceive to be signifi- own garden literally as well as metaphorically, finding cant because their work has captured us. It is natural within it inspiration and materials for his art. to be curious about our captors – about these sources I have come to know Valamanesh well over the last of innovative pleasures or discomforting thoughts. To thirty years, moving beyond nodding social contact in say otherwise is to espouse pure formalist idealism, to 1980, when in an Adelaide Festival exercise for the Art which few subscribe in the real world for the simple Gallery of South Australia I organised the exhi bition reason that it is unsustainable. Adelaide art alternatives, conceived in the spirit of A few comments, then, on the person. Hossein the Link Exhibition program I had run at the gallery Valamanesh presents as a robust, compact person as Curator of Paintings during the 1970s. Alternatives physically, with fine wrists and pronounced eyebrows involved commissioning leading Adelaide artists’ that can elevate up and down when he is amused or collectives, including Roundspace, a group to which when seeking to amuse, like those of Groucho Marx. He Valamanesh belonged, to create installations and per- manifests a confident, occasionally clownish demeanour formances in various locations around and beyond the as the carapace of a gently assertive persona that bur- geoned in step with his artistic development: he was shy and respectful of authority when he first arrived in Australia. He dresses neatly and stylishly, often with a Middle Eastern accent, and if never flamboyant in his garb, he is rarely seen in public without smart shoes and a fedora.