Blunt Blades
2021
The Higgins Bedford. UK
Funded by Arts Council England
Often provocative, artist Arabel Lebrusan’s works engage with material culture and the feminine tactile environment, investigating wider issues of power relationships, exploitation and inequality. Blunt Blades extends her study on material culture, exploring our complex relationships with knives and their varied roles.
The journey began in 2013 when Bedfordshire Police gave Lebrusan three crates of confiscated knives and other dangerous artefacts. Transforming the metal from these seized objects into various works conceived to evoke emotions, this body of work examines the ways materials carry inherent meanings and how those meanings can be reshaped. Lebrusan’s artworks, in their myriad forms, do not offer answers to the many issues they raise. Instead, they invite contemplation about object materiality, production of meanings and our shared humanity.
Knife Murders 275/275 England and Wales
Mixed stainless steel from police confiscated knives and other artefacts.
Dimensions variable.
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.
Tales of Blunt Blades
First edition of 500.
This artist book features short stories, poems, and comics about 43 blades from the social history collection at The Higgins Bedford. Between 2019 and 2021, Lebrusan invited writers and the public to create new stories for these blades. The project aimed to highlight diverse voices and explore the different roles knives play in our everyday lives.
Friendship – Fate – Fate
An audio work featuring 3 interviews with three different women about their relationships with knives, from self harming to being a victim of knife crime. Situating this work in the domestic setting at the Higgins House, it invites audiences to reflect on the hopes and demons that many of us carry along.
Blunt Blades Exchange
2020
Social Engaging Art Project with support from Women’s Support Centre Surrey and Quiet Down There, Brighton