I think I hear something that’s gone

recordings sourced from The Macaulay Library and edited by the artist.

In 1949, Hēnare Hāmana was recorded imitating the call of the huia – an extinct bird from Aotearoa of which no other recordings exist – from memory. Inspired by Hāmana’s huia call, this work explores the feedback loop of loss and memory. Interspersed with silence for the huia, 11 extinct species (9 birds, 2 amphibians) can be heard. Voices collected through observations that in their loss hold a different significance, as sounds that cannot be listened to in their true context ever again. These calls are only memories, and this chorus always was impossible. While close to the piece, the cacophony can be heard, but stepping away relegates it back to a memory, this one belonging to the viewer.