Yasemen Hussein at The Apple HQ John de Mearns '07 As I walk the exhibition with Yasemen she, a sculptural hairdresser bird, pecks at her nests of locks expeditiously manipulating, tweeking, adjusting the intricate assemblages of wire that describe so precisely the iconic characters they draw their inspiration from. The 'headpieces' encourage an intimacy that at once seduces the viewer; daring us to be this voluptuous, this glamorous, this sumptuous, whilst at the same time provoking, challenging us to be this clear, this defineable, to risk having this much character. The Audacity of the work, describing a history through a hairstyle, inevitably describes a void and the voids provoke disquiet and a deeper personal enquiry. Translate 'as above so below' to 'as without so within', and you are left wondering why your locks are as they are, a reflection of your history? Of your mind? Yasemen has cast Pomegranates in lead, bronze and aluminium defying nature's generosity and giving this loaded fruit her own alchemical twist. And like the pomegranates her huge plumes poised as if recently cast off by a divine phoenix in a moment of distraction, frustrate and enchant us all at once. I am left admiring Yasemen's wit and her daring to describe so robstly something so soft, so fragile: the ephemeral, the stuff which will inevitably vanish in a snip. In so doing she defines and honours the eternal qualities we all recognise, qualities we secretly hope we too posess and (who knows) will perhaps even be remembered for, if we can be so bold.