This floor-based video monitor work forms part of the exhibition ...the rest is smoke, by Helen Sear, the representative for Wales at the Venice Biennale 2015. It was filmed pointing the camera directly upwards toward the crown of trees in a beechwood in Wales, the same wood that was the location for "Company of Trees". The siting of the work in the sacristy at Santa Maria Ausillatrice illuminated the architectural feature that was the font in the space.

"In the beautiful The Beginning and End of Things, we appear to be looking down into a pool that is reflecting the tops of trees above our heads, the shape of the pool being warped and doubled as in a fairground mirror. Looking simultaneously up and down, inwards and outwards, we might be observing the swaying and bellying of a nebula or an amoeba." Steven Connor