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Pasha and Vladimir

Pasha and Vladimir met in 2003 at an event where Pasha was a dancer, and it was love at first sight.

Years later, they decided to marry, and this decision was strategic and practical, since that way their relationship would be legally recognized in countries where same-sex marriage is allowed, as they planned to emigrate. Their wedding rings, simple silver bands with semi-precious stones, have a unique backstory: they were melted down from medals Vladimir earned at work. One medal featured a chrome diopside, which was preserved in Vladimir’s ring, while Pasha’s was set with a sapphire.

They married in Denmark, a long-planned step sped up by the war and mobilization. Only a few people attended the wedding in person, but they streamed the ceremony to friends worldwide. Pasha’s and Vladimir’s parents remain unaware of the marriage.

Now, the couple lives in Georgia and is planning to move to Europe.

D. and R.

D. and R. met while playing a forum-based RPG. D. moved to R.'s city and soon realized she wanted to spend her life with her.

The couple had custom rings made—silver with hand-engraving on the outside and machine-engraving inside. The design reflects the fandom and pairing that brought them together.

They married in the small Portuguese town of Cascais, with only attendance of R.'s friend and representatives from Equal Marriage, the organization that arranged the wedding.

D. and R. emigrated from Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, unwilling to live in an aggressor country. They felt much safer in their new home until recently, when that country also began passing laws threatening their family’s safety.

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Maxim and Vladimir

Maxim accidentally met Vladimir on Instagram and instantly attracted to him. He described Vladimir as a “cute bearded bun.” They began messaging, and six months later, after meeting in person in the same city, they spent an inseparable week together, deciding to try a long-term relationship. They've been together for over 4 years.

Maxim proposed to Vladimir on their anniversary, choosing simple tungsten rings. The engagement rings they exchanged later became their wedding bands.

They married in Denmark, and after the civil ceremony, their friends surprised them with a tour of Copenhagen, a wedding cake, a restaurant dinner, and a photo session.

Although they had planned to emigrate before, the announcement of the mobilization in Russia prompted them to pack and leave for Armenia within three days.

Their emigration was relatively smooth, but the stress took its toll, and at one point, Maxim and Vladimir broke up for six months. However, they later reconciled, and their relationship became stronger and more loving. Now, the couple is planning to move to Germany.

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Theo and Zhenya

Theo and Zhenya met after a concert. It was raining heavily, and Zhenya ran under Theo’s umbrella, asking to walk together to the metro. On the platform, they turned to each other, and Theo realized he had fallen in love.

During the COVID quarantine, Zhenya stayed with Theo for the first time, and they realized they never wanted to be apart.

Theo proposed with a ring featuring a watermelon (rainbow) tourmaline and a silver triangle, a reference to the pink triangle. Their wedding rings were custom-made; a jeweler melted down gold jewelry Theo inherited from his homophobic aunt, who stopped speaking to him because of Zhenya.

They had an online wedding via Zoom, with their registration in Utah, USA. After the ceremony, they strolled through Kazan, drinking champagne and eating echpochmaki.

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The couple plans to emigrate but still lives in Russia for now. To protect their family, they work remotely and rarely go out, spending their free time either in nature or with close friends.

Lena and Anya

Lena and Anya married in Portugal on a coast of the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by close friends. They especially remember how, after the ceremony, passersby came up to congratulate them.

The couple continues to live in Russia, currently choosing internal emigration (though they haven’t ruled out regular emigration). They try to read less news, seek support from professionals, create a comfortable home life, and "ground" themselves with pets and dry wine.

Lena and Anya met in the comments on Fickbook. They continued talking through private messages, living 1,500 kilometers apart. When they finally met, everything clicked. One day, they went on a hike, and their tent was flooded by a spring overnight. Laughing, they dried their sleeping bags by the fire. That’s when they realized they wanted to be together every day for the rest of their lives. They've been together for 8 years since then.

Four months after their first meeting, Lena proposed. She had planned a romantic surprise on a rooftop, but she became so nervous that Anya had to sit her down and ask what was wrong. In the end, the proposal was even more spontaneous.

Their wedding bands were custom-made from silver with edelweiss flowers engraved, honoring the edelweiss field they encountered on that memorable hike.

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Ash and Di

The couple hasn’t had a wedding yet but hopes to someday. Their gradual preparation for emigration was interrupted by Russian invasion of Ukraine, which forced them to change all their plans. They eventually left for Southeast Asia, where, despite the inability to marry, they live openly and in harmony with their surroundings.

Ash and Di met through a shared group of cosplayers. Three years after meeting, they spontaneously went on a vacation together and immediately realized they didn’t want to be apart, so they started dating and living together.

In 2021, after years of living together and raising two children, the couple began considering emigration and discussing marriage, an idea they had previously dismissed, knowing it wouldn’t be recognized in Russia. Shortly after this conversation, Ash ordered rings: simple silver ones, which turned out to be the right choice as their children had already lost two pairs. The proposal was meant to be a surprise, but Di noticed the suspicious box when Ash received the order and asked if it was an engagement ring. Ash had to propose right then and there, in the hallway, with their two children running around.

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Yan and Jens

For the wedding, they bought another set of rings—silver with zirconia and wooden inlays. Finding beautiful, non-gendered rings was challenging, so they were custom-made. Only six friends attended the wedding, as they couldn’t invite their parents and feared they wouldn’t be accepted by their families.

Yan and Jens met in school, two grades apart, but only started talking three years after graduation.

They became each other’s first source of peace and confidence. Jens’ previous relationships had been traumatic, while Yan’s relationship with Jens was his first love. They’ve been together for 4 years.

Six months into their relationship, they found rings inspired by famous paintings—Van Gogh, Kandinsky, and Klee. During the selection process, they realized it felt like picking wedding rings, so they ceremoniously exchanged them on their first anniversary. Yan chose a red ring based on a Klee painting, and Jens chose a blue one featuring almond blossoms from Van Gogh. Over time, part of the colored inlays in Jens’ ring fell out, but he thought it looked beautiful in its own way.

These rings were bought when the idea of an official marriage seemed like a fantasy. However, two and a half years later, the couple moved to Germany and had a wedding.

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Timofey

Timofey and X met in 2018 on a modeling contract. Their first date was in Hong Kong, smoking on a rooftop and listening the Twin Peaks soundtrack. After the war began, they left the country together, but stress and financial struggles made their living together difficult. Timofey participated financially heavily, took on all household duties, and lost himself in X completely. He felt lost, felt that he got only criticism in return, and he began having suicidal thoughts. The conflict peaked when X said Timofey’s depression was dragging him down. After that, their relationship was beyond repair.

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Eira Teufel

Will you?

Russia

Velvet, silk chiffon, antique silk, natural pearls, antique metal and satin beads

This piece is a diptych about codependency and the impossibility of coexistence.

The first ring is a modest shelter for a butterfly's cocoon. The second is a magnificent flower, the source of its sustenance and beauty, offering nectar, leaves, and allure.

One cannot exist without the other, yet it seems the butterfly relies on the flower just a touch more than the flower needs the butterfly. Or does it?

In any case, neither ring can truly be worn. Rather, they could only by severing the flower's stem or discarding the cocoon. And then, they would no longer be the same rings.

К.

K. and A. met during exams. A. liked K.'s split pink-blonde hair and asked to photograph it. Despite living in different cities, A. often stayed over, and they cooked, cuddled watching movies, and went on walks. K.'s favorite memory was a summer date by a fountain, where she sat on the edge while A., in a lilac dress, stood between her knees, hugging her waist.

A. didn’t want their relationship to be public and gradually grew distant, eventually cheating on K. with a man (who, as she said, resembled K.). She confessed this three months later, leading to their breakup.

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Katia Rabey

When you say normal...

Israel

Silver, enamel

For K. and A.’s alternative happy ending I created two rings where the colorful enamel part is placed inside, touching the finger. It’s unusual for traditional jewelry, where the decorative part is placed outside, while the inside of the ring is reserved for more intimate things, like memorable engravings, wedding date etc. However both of the colors K. mentions also happen to be on the lesbian flag, and thus become a hidden identity - considering both K. and A. still live in Russia. On the outside both rings are plain silver and nothing in them gives away their secret - however their bumpy texture is a reference to K. and A.’s both being “very tactile people”.

In addition to colorful enamel, the inside of the rings contains a phrase “When you say normal - what does it even mean?” broken into two - a quote from “Chainsaw Man“ series, that both K. and A. loved to watch together.

I was reading the stories we collected for this project and waited for one of them to resonate with me more than the others - and it happened with K. and A.’s story. First, I felt an instant emotional connection and only later, when rereading it, I realized that within a relatively small text K. manages to mention colors several times - pink and purple. It seems that in K.’s memory colors are highlighted, like in a coloring book that a child only partially filled in.

V.

V. and K. met at a student conference in Yekaterinburg during their final year of university and were together for 11 years. They loved watching movies, listening to music, exploring the city, and occasionally having "lazy days" where they did nothing. Early in their relationship, V. drew K. a pencil sketch, made a card, and bought apples, remembering K. mentioned liking them, and K. was delighted.

Six months before their breakup, K. met someone else. Although V. believed their relationship could last decades, it didn’t, and K. left. While their split wasn’t due to anti-LGBTQ laws, V. found them an obstacle to coping openly, as she couldn’t speak freely online, and several therapists refused to work with her after learning she was a lesbian. To heal, V. “surrounded herself with friends like with a cotton wool” for support and avoided the news, as the pain was already overwhelming.

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Evgenia Elanic

Fortress

Georgia

Brass, cotton wool

In V.'s words, I immediately latched onto the phrase ‘wrapped myself in friends like cotton wool’—it's so vivid, so precise, and so deeply relatable.

I do the same. While I still read the news, I've had to narrow my close circle to those with whom I feel safe, relying on that insulation to endure the crushing weight of hatred, fed both by the propaganda machine and the circumstances of the past few years. I treasure this cotton wool of human acceptance far more than I did before 2022.

In my work, the wedding rings are hidden inside—simple, unadorned bands, resting in cotton wool and encased in a mesh cover, like a sarcophagus. A sanctuary. A fortress of safety. A place where love can exist peacefully, no matter the year or the country.

Yulia

Yulia and X. met by chance on Twitter, simply by replying to each other. When they finally met in person, they discovered many shared interests, while those that differed quickly became common ground. Their first date was a trip to the zoo. While they watched the pandas and talked endlessly, Yulia began to realize she was falling in love.

Together, they enjoyed watching documentaries about serial killers and playing video games, and X. had a particular love for cooking, her personal "language of love". Though X. would occasionally remark that life might have been easier if she were heterosexual, Yulia always felt assured that X. would protect her and stand by her side.

Yulia believes their breakup was her fault. X. had been struggling with a low mood for some time, and Yulia made an offhand comment she thought harmless, but it struck a nerve. X. said she could no longer look at Yulia the same way and then disappeared from her life entirely.

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Agnia Likratowa

Everything I'm left with

Serbia

Steel, garnet

When sturdy bonds grow fragile and snap, countless lifeless threads hang suspended, each bearing droplets of blood. For one who departs unburdened, another is left to bear it all: the memories, the regrets, a tangled mass of torn nerves, fibers still straining toward the one who has gone.

Were it not for hardships, perhaps this chain might have stayed intact, unbroken. But now, someone is left to live, carrying only what-ifs where a tale of love once thrived.

X.

X and Y met in university, but their relationship began years later when X sent Y a meme: "I like you, let’s date (if you say no, I was joking)." They shared interests and fandoms, from Harry Potter and Tolkien to anime. One of their first dates even was a retrospective screening of The Two Towers. They were together for three years until stricter anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia made X feel it was unsafe to stay together. X wanted to protect Y, especially given Y’s very conservative family.

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Into Niilo

I wanna choose love instead of fear

Belgium

Steel

In X’s text, fear and danger weave through the words. It's all too tempting to throw up one’s hands in disbelief and mumble, 'What kind of country is this, where a person fears their own essence, where mere existence feels like provocation?' Yet, every time I encounter such texts—entirely rational for survival given the geographical context and utterly grotesque from the standpoint of common sense—I am overcome with bitterness. Again and again, I find myself reaffirming that such a nauseating regime has no right to exist.

For this piece, I chose the puzzle principle, a concept I first explored in my 2022 project |1984|, which dealt with Newspeak and propaganda. This principle juxtaposes phrases of opposing meanings: a negative phrase occupies positive space, and a positive phrase fills negative space. These two phrases fit seamlessly into one another, illustrating the duality of phenomena.

In this way, the halves of the object carry opposing messages yet read as a single sentence. When joined, they form a unified third object. This approach seemed fitting for wedding rings—here shaped as brass knuckles—a bold declaration of dissent against the status quo.

The phrase I wanna choose love instead of fear is a quote from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song Open/Close. This line encapsulates my emotions since February 2022: horror at the deluge of lies, monstrous violence, and ceaseless hatred. I, too, wish to choose love over fear. I wish my country could embody love and compassion.

To X, I wish love above all else.

I wanted to create pieces symbolizing resilience and struggle for this person.

O.

O. met her partner while applying to art school, volunteering together to whiten statues in the hallway. From then on, they walked around the city daily, talking about everything: art, movies, and comics. O. especially remembered a date at a pizzeria where she introduced herself by the chosen name; they sat as a regular couple, and shared their first public kiss. They broke up out of fear their families would find out, especially since O. struggled to keep the relationship secret. At one point, they even considered leaving the country, but it never worked out.

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Masha Starikova

Seen, unseen

Russia

Silver, dissolving thread, carbon copy paper

The phrase 'видимо-невидимо' is a Russian idiom meaning 'a great many.' By altering its punctuation, I shift the meaning to draw attention to the vast scale of a problem often invisible to society.

For the project Nameless, I created wedding rings that leave traces of paint on everything they touch, symbolically revealing the secret lives of the story’s protagonists. In a free and safe world, such marks would inspire no fear. But for O., the terror of being exposed to her family made it impossible to live in peace.

Delicate petals of carbon copy paper are stitched to the silver rings with a thread known as 'self-dissolving.' Over time, this thread will disappear, laying bare the essence of the story—simple silver wedding bands engraved with the phrase 'SEEN UNSEEN.'

А. and М.

A., M., and S. were in a triad relationship: A. and M. were married, and S. was their girlfriend. When the war draft began in Russia in 2022, M. left the country, and A. gradually prepared to join him. During those months, life with S. became especially harmonious. Though much of their time revolved around the children, they found moments for each other, dancing in the living room after putting the kids to bed, lingering under the blankets in the morning, or escaping to the countryside where the kids could play while they hugged and admired nature together.

After moving to her husband, A. tried to maintain her relationship with S., but S., unable to leave Russia, chose to cut ties, saying, "I decided not to get attached because people keep disappearing." A. believes that without the war and mobilization, they would have moved in together as a family with their three children. While she wondered about the risks of being public about their relationship, she feels that without the anxiety and unbearable uncertainty, they would have found a way to stay together.

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Daria Khoreva

I am a different tree

Georgia

Silver, ginkgo leaf

My work "I AM A DIFFERENT TREE" explores three states of a tree, reflecting the relationships of three people and their influence on one another.

The centerpiece is a ginkgo leaf that withers and dries out, symbolizing the fading of feelings in a relationship that has come to an end. This process, though sorrowful, serves as a reminder of the leaf's beauty at the beginning of its cycle — from its formation to full bloom.

The woman's ring is a branch with roots, symbolizing the potential for new growth and the irreversible changes brought about by love. The roots reflect how personal experiences become rooted in the soul.

The man's ring is a static branch, embodying the beginning of a transformational journey, with the potential for future change lying hidden.

The set examines the dynamics of relationships and the inner changes of each participant.