LULU RIVERA-GRAY
Lulu Rivera-Gray
Hair Pin
2025, copper, enamel, synthetic hair, 76 x 185 mm
Photography by Chris Bowes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
LULU RIVERA-GRAY
Hair Pin plays with how value is assigned to materials, objects and forms of making. Using copper, enamel and synthetic hair rather than precious metals, I deliberately work with materials that are inexpensive and often overlooked. The synthetic hair is woven using traditional bobbin lace techniques, referencing women’s craft practices that have historically been devalued. By placing these inexpensive and unconventional materials within the context of jewellery, I give them a different kind of value, questioning whether an object’s worth comes from its material cost; from the labour, skill, intent and meaning invested in it; or from the context in which it is displayed and viewed.
This approach reflects the future of my practice as precious metals become increasingly inaccessible to makers and artists, particularly students and those early in their careers.
PROFILE
Lulu Rivera-Grey’s practice is grounded in a background of large-scale sculpture and fashion, with jewellery emerging as an extension of these disciplines. She approaches jewellery as wearable art, existing in relationship with the body rather than as purely decorative forms. Her work explores how jewellery activates movement, weight, contract, and presence, drawing on themes of body art, the abject, and the grotesque. Through discomfort and vulnerability, she creates sites of meaning. Materiality is central, combining contrasting substances to challenge ideas of value, while blurring boundaries between sculpture, adornment, and the body itself.
Lulu Rivera-Gray
Remote worker
2026, dried cockroach specimen, enamelled copper, brass, 90 x 70 x 80 mm
Photography by Chris Bowes.
