An Endling for the end of the exhibition: Martha, the last of the eight to ten billion American passenger pigeons, died in 1914 @cincinnatizoo Human predation and the cutting of the Eastern US woodlands devastated her species numbers between 1700 and 1900 resulting in one of the most extreme population collapses and eventual extinctions in recorded history. It is not widely known that passenger pigeons were a key energy source for the building of the great cities of the time, New York, Boston, Philadelphia. Fed to humans and to pigs her protein was a major fuel prior to the emergence of big petroleum in 1901 from Spindletop in Texas. Here she is remembered as a virtual portrait based on contemporary photographs from Cincinnati zoo and scans of her taxidermied body from the @smithsonian in Washington DC. The work centres on her eye, which, as in all photographs remains fixed on the camera in the work. In looking at the virtual camera she looks at us, the human public. The camera slowly orbits her portrait, sitting in a simulation of her original cage. Providing the title of the show @PaceGallery the work is installed in an empty gallery upon a wall mounted LCD panel at life size as seen in slide two. Endling closes tomorrow Friday 12th August 2022 @PaceGallery in New York. See link in bio for full exhibition details. Artwork production credits Producer: Werner Poetzelberger Programmer: Helmut Bressler Basel Model : Grzegorz Flaga Animation: Arx Anima Game Engine : Unigine Installation development : Jakob Illera / Inseq Commissioned by Ahmet Avcioglu, Borusan Contemporary Install videos by Frank Heath.