Pinky Ring presents a series of plaster relief carvings shaped by ideas of speculative function, symbolic architectures, and objects of personal affection. Faceted gemstones appear throughout the works, functioning like small acts of emphasis or attachment.

Chosen in the way one might select a piece of jewellery to mark a moment of significance, they introduce a sense of private importance to scenes, systems, and objects that otherwise remain speculative and unresolved.

Recurring forms move throughout the works utilising the logic of instructions, symbols, or traces of larger systems. Arrows, chambers, vessels, and passages suggest consequence or function without ever resolving into stable meaning. The titles reflect this same tension, moving between plain description and private implication.

In Pinky Ring, materials such as oil paints, stains, pastels, hides, and inks introduce softness, ornament, texture, and vulnerability into the surfaces of the reliefs. Combined with plaster and stone, they allow sincerity and ambiguity to coexist within works that seem structured or severe. At the core of the exhibition is an interest in how personal objects can absorb memory, attachment, and become charged with emotional weight.

Accompanying the exhibition is a commissioned text by Cork-based curator Katie O’Grady.

https://pallasprojects.org/projects/struan-bell-pinky-ring