Tara Heuzé-Sarmini

Tara Heuzé-Sarmini grew up in Paris and is now based in New York City. She studied at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge as a postgraduate student. Alongside her artistic practice, she is an activist for women’s rights and founded the charity, Règles Élémentaires, which provides homeless women with sanitary products.

Heuzé-Sarmini began creating sculptures at the age of five. The ‘Yes, We Can!’ project started in 2008 and was inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign slogan. She used the money from the sale of her works in order to fund her academic studies. One of the other sculptures in the series was acquired by a collection in Hong Kong and others have been displayed in Paris and Moscow. The artist has expressed her desire to donate one of the works to Obama himself.

All the of the eight works in the ‘Yes, We Can!’ series feature a headless female figure in a distinctive pose: slightly leaning and stepping forward, one hand behind her back, the other by her side. Her stride expresses a certain confidence which reflects the title of the work. The textured surface of the figure captures the changes in light and gives the sculpture a luminescent appearance.