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Arabel Lebrusán...
Lebrusán’s artistic practice is sometimes found in that thin line between ART and JEWELLERY. Most of the artworks below are conceived as an artistic response to specific SOCIAL INJUSTICES, ECOLOGICAL concerns and FEMINIST viewpoints. They are unique in nature or small editions, and they often narrate powerful stories using a poetic language.
They are not conceived with the body in mind and they are often display on walls as WORKS OF ART.
Please head to her personal website to see her SCULPTURAL and SITE-SPECIFIC artworks.
Year: 2007-2015
Medium: Photo Installation & Diamond Earrings
Unique, in private collection.
Can you tell the difference? For decades now, international media has called for attention on conflict diamonds. In many African countries, diamonds continue to be linked to the abuse of human rights, insurgent groups, unscrupulous governments and the fuelling of conflict. Illicit diamonds make fabulous profits for terrorists and corporations alike. With as much clarity has a high quality stone, the jewellery industry illustrates the willingness of the world to turn away, blinded by the calming sparkle of beautiful jewels.
Year: 2023
Medium: Found axe, sterling silver, natural diamonds and rubies
Dimensions: 40cm x 15cm x2cm
Exhibited: London Art Fair 2024, with Koop Projects
From 1991 to 2002, Sierra Leone endured a devastating civil war marked by brutal conflicts over diamond territories. Thousands of men and children faced mutilation with axes, preventing them from mining diamonds. This artwork is part of Lebrusan’s body of work titled “The Book of Horrors and Hopes,” serving as a diary chronicling the stories she’s encountered throughout her jewellery career and her artistic responses, aiming to somehow digest its brutality.
Year: 2022
Medium: Silver, mercury, gold leaf, brass, glass & wood display
Dimensions: 20cm x 15cm x15cm
Nearly 40% of global mercury pollution comes from artisanal gold mining.
2023. Natural rose flower with solid silver coating. Unique. In Private Collection.
Dimensions: 70cm x 10cm x 10cm.
2023. Celebratory coin made in brass
Dimensions: 25mm x 25mm x 4mm
Joias is a celebratory coin, featuring a portrait of Eliane Mello and her 6-month-old unborn child who died at the Brumandinho iron mine disaster. Brazil 2019.
Year: 2021
Medium: Set of 275 rings made of metal from police confiscated knives and other artefacts.
Exhibited: Blunt Blades, The Higgins Bedford, 2021 – 2022; and London Art Fair 2024.
Knife Murders 275/275 England and Wales is a set of 275 rings made using the metal from police confiscated knives and other artefacts. The rings represent homicides in England and Wales from April 2019 until March 2020. There are 10 small-sized rings to represent under children homicides (those aged under 16 years), 50 medium-sized thin rings to represent women homicides and 215 wide and large-sized rings to represent men homicides. Each ring is laser inscribed with the edition number AL KM20 1/275, AL KM 20 2/275, etc.
Year: April 2021
Medium: Social Engaging Art Project with support from Women’s Support Centre Surrey and Quiet Down There
Blunt Blades Exchange (2021) is a social engagement art project wherein police-confiscated knives were repurposed into rings and given to 9 women at the Women’s Support Centre Surrey in spring 2021. Through a series of conversations and a bespoke design process, Lebrusan and the women collectively explored the meanings and associations of the rings. They came up with personalised symbols of empowerment that were later engraved onto the ring and customised for each participant.
Year: 2007
Medium & Materials: Sculpture. 3000 articulated silver components.
Dimensions: 184cm x 56cm
Exhibited: Object as a Muse, Crafts Council touring exhibition. 2008-2010
Year: 2014 – 2021
Medium: 1200 copper components, copper cable, fused plug
Dimensions: 130cm x 50cm x 2.5cm
Exhibited: Koop Projects, 2023
Year: 2008
Medium: Pearl Tapestry & Pearl Neckline. Tapestry. Natural fresh water pearls. Dye. Thread. Neckline. Natural fresh water pearls. Dye. 18ct ethical gold, sterling silver, Australian fire opal. Unique, in private collection.
Dimensions: Canvas 1000 x 800mm. Necklace 100cm
When death becomes beauty (2008) is a necklace and tapestry made of natural freshwater pearls. The title, which suggests the conflict between aesthetics and ethics, is echoed in the luster of countless pearls that are carefully strung together to depict a dead pigeon floating on water.
This work refers to the ecosystems where oysters and mussels from freshwater pearl farming are marked by the stress of pollution from surrounding activities (farming, construction, wastewater). Lakes and ponds are often heavily loaded with animal manure and chemical fertilisers to invigorate the growth of mussels, gradually leading to wider ecological problems such as eutrophication – the impairment of freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems.
