Vale Hossein Valamanesh

It was with great sadness that we heard of the sudden death of artist Hossein Valamanesh. Hossein suffered a major heart attack on January 15th.

Hossein and his artist wife Angela’s design for the Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine, aka “The Famine Memorial” located at the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney, has been an outstanding success subsequent to its unveiling in August 1999 by then Governor-General Sir William Deane.

The Memorial is a lasting tribute to Hossein, an Iranian immigrant to Australia (1973), whose design for the memorial represents themes of dislocation, reminders of homeland, new life in a new world and fading memory.

We salute Hossein and offer condolences to Angela and their son Nassiem.

Further reading: Commemorating The Irish Famine, Memory and the Monument by Emily Mark-Fitzgerald, publ Liverpool University Press 2013