For Last Calls / Pink Noise, Hargrave creates abstract patterned “portraits” of the most threatened and endangered birds of the world. They are constructed using Spectrogram recordings, sound files depicting sound wave patterns of actual bird calls. Also included are archives of the voices of scientists describing field conditions, dates, times, and the catalog numbers of each recording. Hargrave photographs, layers, and tones the sound waves using the surprising colors of eyes, talons, and skin, of each particular species, contradicting the ubiquitous argument “why save that simple brown bird”. Reminiscent of hieroglyphics, these avian vocalizations, speak to parallels and contradictions of migration; free: birds vs. obstructed: human, as well as environmental concerns.
Currently, the calls of extinct or threatened bird species are housed in library vaults due to the accelerating pace of climate change and habitat loss. Our ways of interacting and experiencing wildlife is now mediated through the use of technology. Hearing archival recordings of the very last mating calls of now extinct male birds summoning non-existent females is chilling. The incredible sense of loss, and the poignancy of a library containing this evidence of biodiversity past, is deeply moving to the artist, and inspired this project.
Several differing site specific installations include sound, photographic murals / wallpapers, silk wall hangings, and semi-transparent scrims layered over landscapes where the birds once occupied in abundance. Such as the CA Condor / Biosphere piece; research shows it was at one time prevalent in tropical biospheres so Hargrave symbolically returns the Condor to one of it's nascent ecosystems.
