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Discover the meaning of art objects and how they blur the line between jewellery and fine art. Through the ethical and feminist practice of Arabel Lebrusan, explore how materials like Fairmined Gold and recycled silver become works of art with social and ecological impact.
For most of history, jewellery has been defined as ornament: a marker of wealth, love, or power, made to adorn the body. Yet in contemporary practice, this boundary is increasingly challenged. What happens when jewellery becomes more than decoration — when it becomes a medium for memory, protest, or ecological reflection?
This is the space of the art object: a creation that defies easy categorisation. It may be wearable, but it is equally at home in the gallery, displayed as sculpture or installation. Its purpose is not only to embellish, but to provoke, to tell stories, and to insist on new ways of seeing.
In the philosophy of new materialism, matter is never inert. Political theorist Jane Bennett, in her influential book Vibrant Matter, suggests that metals, minerals, and even industrial debris possess their own agency. They shape human lives as much as humans shape them.
Seen in this light, precious materials are never “neutral.” Gold bears the scars of extraction and labour; diamonds carry histories of trade and violence; copper transmits the invisible flows of energy and industry.
When Arabel Lebrusan chooses to work with recycled silver and Fairmined Gold she is engaging with these entanglements consciously. The art object becomes a way of re-channeling the vitality of materials — giving voice to their ecological and political histories.
Ecofeminism draws parallels between the exploitation of women and the exploitation of the Earth. Both are reduced to resources: undervalued, extracted, and controlled.
Lebrusan’s artisticpracticeresonates with this critique. Works like Electric Apron highlight the politics of domestic labour, often feminised and hidden, while also referencing the industrial extraction of copper and the use of antibiotics in livestock farming. In doing so, the piece insists that the personal is ecological, and the ecological is political.
Her consistent choice to work with ethically sourced materials is also an ecofeminist gesture: an ethic of care and responsibility towards communities, bodies, and the planet.
What makes art objects especially powerful is their dual existence.
In the gallery, they stand as autonomous artworks: labelled, exhibited, and contextualised within broader discourses.
On the body, they are activated, carried into public space, and transformed by lived experience.
This ability to inhabit both spaces — the intellectual world of the museum and the intimate world of the wearer — expands their communicative potential. Jewellery, in this sense, becomes a moving form of sculpture.
On her Art Objects page, Lebrusan presents works exhibited at the Crafts Council, The Higgins Bedford, and the London Art Fair. Each demonstrates how art jewellery can be both conceptually rigorous and materially responsible.
Highlights include:
Knife Murders 275/275: A set of 275 rings cast from police-confiscated knives, each representing a homicide in England and Wales in 2019–20. The work transforms statistics into tangible, wearable memorials.
He Does Not Ask About My Age…: A sculpture addressing mercury use in artisanal gold mining. According to the World Health Organization and UNEP, this practice releases around 1,000 tonnes of mercury annually, contaminating waterways and human bodies. The piece materialises an otherwise invisible crisis.
Electric Apron: An apron of copper, knives, and pharmaceutical codes that critiques both domesticity and industrial agriculture. It embodies an ecofeminist insistence that the exploitation of women’s labour and the exploitation of natural resources are interconnected.
Each work demonstrates how jewellery, when treated as an art object, can carry critique, testimony, and care.
In an age of ecological crisis, social unrest, and fast consumption, art objects matter because they remind us that materials are alive — vibrant with histories, ecologies, and politics.
Through her art, Arabel Lebrusan shows that jewellery can be more than precious adornment. It can be an act of ethical witnessing, a site of ecofeminist reflection, and a vehicle for social transformation.
For collectors, curators, and cultural thinkers, art objects offer not only aesthetic pleasure but also intellectual depth and moral weight. They are artworks to be worn, lived with, and thought through — a living conversation between matter, maker, and world.
✨ Explore the full collection of Art Objects by Arabel Lebrusan, or learn more about her ethical jewellery practiceand exhibitions.
It's possible to embrace the beautiful materials that Mother Nature offers us without harming our beautiful planet. By asking questions, simplifying supply chains and sharing our knowledge with the world, we can achieve this balance.
