This Is All the Treasure We Can Have or Hold

This essay is from the catalogue 
for Ruth Calland’s solo show This Is All the Treasure We Can Have or Hold, held in 2025 at 20:21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe, and touring in 2026 to Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. 

As I began to find a language for my own nonbinary identity in recent years, I became aware of the experiences of other gender expansive people, often through social media such as TikTok. I began using film stills made by creators as a resource for celebratory paintings, to capture something of their vulnerability and resilience, and positioning gender expansion as inherently linked to eco-fragility and biodiversity.’ 

Ruth Calland 2026