Interview: Rewilding a new exhibition of sculpture and jewellery by Lisa Roet
Following an extraordinary year that’s seen major milestones, from her Going Ape survey exhibition in Melbourne to the monumental Great Ape installation in London, artist Lisa Roet returns to Pieces of Eight Gallery with Rewilding. In this new exhibition, Roet continues her lifelong exploration of the intricate connection between humans and the natural world, translating her ideas into an intimate collection of wearable art.
PO8: Lisa, this year has already been a significant one for you, with major projects and exhibitions across the world. What has 2025 held for you so far, both creatively and personally?
LR: This year has been huge and I'm excited to finish it with this exhibition at Pieces of Eight. I’ve just returned from the UK after exhibiting at the Royal Geographical Society, London. Before London, I was in Brazil, where I placed a project on The Meta Building in downtown Sao Paolo, pre-COP30 - a major annual UN conference to discuss and negotiate climate change - being held in the Amazon in November. I am also in the early stages of developing a project with an Indonesian artist to be exhibited in 2026.
PO8: Rewilding speaks to returning to an uncultivated state, both in nature and within ourselves. How did this idea take shape for you in the context of jewellery and adornment?
LR: In Brazil I visited several National Parks, in both Sao Paolo and Rio De Janeiro, where pieces of landscape are being returned back to their original states, including the reintroduction of lost species of animals and flora. The term for this is ReWilding, which is a term I found both sad and fascinating at the same time. It’s sad that from a conservation perspective we have come to this, but fascinating that there are these efforts to return nature to what it once was. For me, placing the skin texture of one of our closest animal relatives on wearable art pieces, in a way, rewilds the human form. Gibbon fingers curl around stones in settings and Orangutans skin texture curls around the Finger of the wearer.
PO8: Your works move fluidly between art object and adornment. How do you personally wear your jewellery, and how do you like to see others experience it?
LR: I like people to wear it in both casual and formal contexts. I think the texture is both casual and a bit bling at the same time. As with the Chimpanzee busts and hands, I plate the works in gold to reflect important commodities... gold, copper, titanium. These platings adorn what is thought of as earthly and wild, because I see the wild and nature as an important commodity. I layer my jewellery pieces, combining stones with the skin textured pieces, alongside more figurative items.
PO8: Alongside your collection of wearable pieces, Rewilding also includes several of your sculptural works. Can you talk us through these pieces?
The Gibbon hands are based on one of my favorite primate species. Gibbons are placed within the same High Ape scientific family as Humans. They are the only other primate species that are monogamous, partnering for life. When I’m in Borneo’s jungle, the thing I love most is hearing their love calls as dawn rises. They sing their love calls across the canopy of the forest, calling for each other after leaving their nest early to look for fruit.
They are modelled from clay, cast in bronze and plated in 24 carat gold. This gold plating represents not only gold as a commodity, but from a scientific perspective, most Gibbon species are golden colour until the male reaches puberty, at which point they become black.
I saw the Snow Monkey on a trip outside of Tokyo. The monkeys were bathing in the hot springs and this particular monkey was in a state of complete bliss. It was a heavenly scene, with the steam rising from the water and the snow falling, total Nirvana.
The Chimp busts are from an ongoing series where I explore animal language. In the process of creating them, I’m contemplating human body language. Each bust is individually modelled, no two are the same, as I explore subtle states of communication. The upturned mouth placed in the hooting position, shows the stage of a love call, where the Chimpanzee is communicating to an individual 'other'. The passive state is a state of contemplation and thought, which is a state not often attributed to other animals.
As Rewilding opens at Pieces of Eight Gallery this October, Roet invites us to look inward as much as outward. To reconnect with instinct, empathy and the natural world that sustains us. Through her intimate, tactile works, she continues to blur the boundary between adornment and art, asking us to rediscover our wild selves in the process.
Rewilding is showing at Pieces of Eight Gallery from 22 October – 16 November 2025. Visit the exhibition in person at our Russell Place Gallery, or explore the Rewilding exhibition online.
