Combining jewellery materials in her installations and portraits Mari Keto explores the limits of artifacts. In Keto’s works both the conceptual underpinning and a high degree of craftsmanship merge into an artwork. She engages with her subject matter from various perspectives in order to define her own. Keto explores the tensions and structures of our contemporary culture by portraying icons and
symbols predominantly surrounding us. Deriving from cultural histories and pop culture her work examines the distinctions between value and consumption. Keto’s multilayered works contain intemperate realism mixed with humour and irony. Keto’s works are composed of diamonds, crystals, pearls and other jewellery material as she is intrigued by the fine line between sustainability and perishableness. She selects the craftingtechnique, varying from tanning of leather to blacksmithing iron, boiling earth paint to casting gold, cutting stones to etching metals, depending on the essence of the work. Past years nature connection has occupied more and more space in her works. Especially the fine line between human and non-human agents has her attention
