To Own Both Nothing and the Whole World (2025)

A collaboration with writer and architect Roua Horanieh

• BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts
• Co-commissioned and co-produced by Counterpoints Arts and BALTIC Centre for contemporary Art
• Made possible by the support of Moomin Characters Ltd.

The installation explores ideas of home, belonging and the impact of displacement on both the human and more-than-human worlds. The materials used for the work were foraged from the surrounding landscapes, each carrying its own enchanting story, bringing communities together in unexpected and meaningful ways.

The installation invites us to reflect on the interconnected journeys of people, plants and place, foregrounding the invaluable contribution migrants bring to this country, and the power and beauty of nature and community shaping our shared world.

The installation grew out of a year-long programme of engagement, structured around a series of nature walks and workshops with the working group. Involving Alnwick Gardens, Howick Hall Gardens and Scots Wood Gardens and culminating with a special tree planting ceremony as part of a Sanctuary Forum at the Civic Centre Gardens to mark the valuable contributions that migrants, both human and more-than-human, make to our communities and cities.

To Own Both Nothing and the Whole World is a sprawling installation, extending from Baltic Square into the atrium and rising through to the top floor of the building.

Inside BALTIC’s Viewing Box on Level 5 sits a large circular nest like structure. It has been built with branches, stalks, willow sticks, roots and cherry blossom. It is a place made from beauty and tension, materials that speak of both safety and hostility, echoing the contradictory nature of contemporary borders and the complex emotions around belonging.

As you move around the nest, you are invited to reflect on its symbolic weight — as both refuge and threshold. What does it take to build a safe space? How many elements need to come together to create a solid place of refuge.

Suspended in the atrium, is a storm-uprooted tree, carried to Baltic in a performative procession led by people with lived experience of displacement, together with friends and allies. Its journey to the gallery is both literal and symbolic. Once home to nesting birds, the tree now lies horizontally – in a state of limbo. Weathered yet still beautiful, it speaks of departure, arrival, and the challenges of existing in-between.

Accompanying the tree is an immersive soundscape drawn from fragments of the project’s shared journey: tree sap coursing through Tai-Haku cherry trees in Alnwick Garden, the dawn chorus at Howick Hall, and the layered sounds of a tree being carried through the city.

Outside on Baltic Square stand two majestic, 200-year-old oak roots. These uprooted roots serve as a powerful metaphor for the themes of displacement and belonging. No longer held by the soil that once nourished and anchored them, the roots now stand as quiet witnesses: to the passage of time, to resilience and wisdom, to beauty shaped by adversity.