Requiem (The Last Call)
2024
Lacquered mild steel sculpture, 4 minutes single channel audio
83 x 192 x 79 in, 211 x 488 x 201 cm (h x l x b)
Alloy steel bird cage:
30 x 18 in, 76.2 x 45.7 cm
Prints: 20 x 15 in, 50.8 x 38.1 cm each (5 frames) 11 x 16 in, 28 x 40.6 cm (1 frame) 11 x 11 in, 28 x 28 cm (2 frames)
Requiem (The Last Call) is a large-scale installation that extends Reena Saini Kallat’s ongoing engagement with sound-based works. The immersive piece features recordings of bird calls from thirteen species now extinct across regions spanning Brazil, Hawai‘i, Guatemala, the US and New Zealand. These include the cryptic treehunter, the poo-uli, the dusky seaside sparrow, the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and the Huia among others that have fallen victim to habitat destruction, overhunting, climate change, and pollution.
The work functions both as a memorial and as a poignant reminder of creatures now lost, accessible only through historical archives, in an age when 9,760 species face extreme risk of extinction. By reanimating an antiquated surveillance device once used in 20th-century warfare to track and detect sounds of approaching enemy aircraft, the work reframes extinction as an act of aggression. Here, however, the ‘enemy’ is not external but rooted in human-driven activity that is resetting the course of life itself, drawing attention to the absences that shape our history, whether through war or ecological collapse.
