Bespoke Sculpture
YASEMEN HUSSEIN
BESPOKE SCULPTURE FOR INTERIORS, EVENTS & MERCHANDISING
EXHIBITIONS:
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT Museum, London
Opera: Passion, Power & Politics
‘Sat atop the mannequin heads in Opera: Passion, Power and Politics, Yasemen Hussein’s sculptural, intricate wigs are crafted from thin rods of contorted, welded copper.
Taking reference from historical photographs, Hussein’s wigs have a theatricality to them that perfectly complements the exhibition setting and the costume that they sit alongside.’
About Yasemen
“Some very diverse elements go into the creative mix at Yasemen Hussein’s studio. There’s a mountain of electrical cable, a shelf full of 1970s copper vases retrieved from the windows of local charity shops, some heavy duty welding equipment and… a concrete mixer. “I’m inspired by mythology, the Italian renaissance and poetry,” she says. “Basically – beauty. And that could be Dolly Parton or Aubrey Beardsley.” Her work is as exuberant and fantastical as it is organic, and she works at any scale – from making intricate objects for a Tim Walker set, to creating vast and dramatic sculptures for atrium spaces.
Hussein studied glass work in Illinois, learned “the tricks of the trade of concrete” in California and now sculpts the most intricate copper pieces imaginable in her converted stable house in south London. Her metal feathers juxtapose elegance and lightness with the heft of their source material and are commissioned to act as light fittings, or interior centrepieces of varying sizes. “But nothing is ever the same twice and because of the way I work, every piece is a total original.”
Mark C. O’Flaherty
Financial Times HTSI
“It’s rare to find an artist who combines such professional attitude with creativity and strong spirit.”
Alison Pickett, Corporate Art & Sculpture Consultant
“Hussein’s gilded works are as fit for the Victoria & Albert Museum as they are for Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima”
Bronwyn Cosgrove, Salt Magazine
COMMISSION YASEMEN
Recent commissions include a series of elaborate bespoke copper wigs for the V&A’s ‘Opera: Passion, Power and Politics’ exhibition, giant entwined feathers for the André Fu-designed cocktail bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi, and a highly intricate permanent lobby installation for Clarges Mayfair, central London’s most exclusive and luxurious real estate project to date.
Hussein has also created dramatic front window pieces for Joseph, collaborated on headware for Philip Treacy and created stagewear for Katy Perry and Will.i.am as well as fluid, windswept-looking metal “hairpieces” for Toni & Guy.