Osman Yousefzada wraps Selfridges in world’s largest canvas
Artist Osman Yousefzada transforms Selfridges Birmingham’s iconic facade into a dramatic art installation confronting migration, race and labour

The iconic, bulbous blue and silver facade of Selfridges Birmingham has been transformed into something altogether more otherworldly. This is the work of multidisciplinary artist
Osman Yousefzada, whose vast new installation, Infinity Pattern 1 measures in at 10,000 sq m, and weighs five tonnes.
The piece – co-commissioned with Ikon gallery – comprises an endlessly tessellating pattern of angular pink and black shapes, addressing themes of migration, race and labour. Beyond a striking public art installation, and a dramatic new landmark for Birmingham’s Bullring, Infinity Pattern 1 is also a record-breaker, taking the title of the ‘world's largest canvas’.
For Yousefzada, who is Birmingham-born, and the son of Pakistani-Afghan migrants, the work is steeped in biography but also holds universal resonance. In its infinitely tessellating pattern, it imagines a world without borders. ‘The work is entrenched in autoethnographic elements of migration, community formation and how they happen, interact and settle,’ says Yousefzada. ‘The work reflects my personal story and more widely my ethnic history and some of the symbolism inherent to my culture.’
Continuing Selfridges’ commitment to creativity in the cities its stores inhabit, the commission – in situ until the end of 2021 – is accompanied by an in-store art exhibition, shop and art trail all co-designed and co-curated with Ikon. These elements and expand on the subjects raised by Infinity Pattern 1, featuring further new works by Yousefzada, and pieces by Birmingham artists Hira Butt, Farwa Moledina and Maryam Wahid.
Yousefzada's additional work – anchored by a series of mixed-media works on paper – was developed through a recent residency at Birmingham's School of Art in Fine Art Printmaking and Sculpture. The new pieces challenge the stereotypes of ‘The Model Migrant’ and the perception of Brown Bodies in the Western world.
Selfridges creative director, Hannah Emslie said: ‘Selfridges is celebrating the communities of Birmingham through a unique art commission that represents both optimism and transformation. This new work by Osman Yousefzada is uplifting but also meaningful and deeply connected to the fabric and culture of the city. By changing the skyline – at a time when the city itself is changing – we hope to make the world brighter through creative expression, and the people of Birmingham even prouder of their iconic city.’
Osman Yousefzada shares his ode to Birmingham, the city that shaped him
Hira Butt, Dhee Kahani, 2020. Courtesy the artist. Copyright the artist
Maryam Wahid, Women from the Pakistani Diaspora in England, 2018. Courtesy the artist.
Farwa Moledina, No one is neutral here, 2019.
INFORMATION
selfridges.com/osman
ADDRESS
Selfridges Birmingham
Bullring & Grand Central
4 Moor St, Birmingham B5 4BU
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
Beach chic: the all-new Citroën Ami gets an acid-tinged, open-air Buggy variant
Citroën have brought a dose of polychromatic playfulness to their new generation Ami microcar, the cult all-ages electric quadricycle that channels the spirit of the 2CV for the modern age
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Rosewood Miyakojima: ‘Japan, but not as most people know it’
Rosewood Miyakojima offers a smooth balance of intuitive Japanese ‘omotenashi’ fused with Rosewood’s luxury edge
-
Thrilling, demanding, grotesque and theatrical: what to see at Berlin Gallery Weekend
Berlin Gallery Weekend is back for 2025, and with over 50 galleries taking part, there's lots to see
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park
‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Remote Antarctica research base now houses a striking new art installation
In Antarctica, Kyiv-based architecture studio Balbek Bureau has unveiled ‘Home. Memories’, a poignant art installation at the remote, penguin-inhabited Vernadsky Research Base
-
Ryoji Ikeda and Grönlund-Nisunen saturate Berlin gallery in sound, vision and visceral sensation
At Esther Schipper gallery Berlin, artists Ryoji Ikeda and Grönlund-Nisunen draw on the elemental forces of sound and light in a meditative and disorienting joint exhibition
-
Cecilia Vicuña’s ‘Brain Forest Quipu’ wins Best Art Installation in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards
Brain Forest Quipu, Cecilia Vicuña's Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern, has been crowned 'Best Art Installation' in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards
-
Michael Heizer’s Nevada ‘City’: the land art masterpiece that took 50 years to conceive
Michael Heizer’s City in the Nevada Desert (1972-2022) has been awarded ‘Best eighth wonder’ in the 2023 Wallpaper* design awards. We explore how this staggering example of land art came to be
-
Cerith Wyn Evans: ‘I love nothing more than neon in direct sunlight. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful’
Cerith Wyn Evans reflects on his largest show in the UK to date, at Mostyn, Wales – a multisensory, neon-charged fantasia of mind, body and language
-
The best 7 Christmas installations in London for art lovers
As London decks its halls for the festive season, explore our pick of the best Christmas installations for the art-, design- and fashion-minded
-
Ai Weiwei to sign blank sheets of paper with UV ink for Refugees International in London this weekend
To mark Human Rights Day (10 December 2022), Ai Weiwei will take to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park to sign sheets of A4 paper in UV ink, distributed free. We interview the artist to find out more