Mumbai: Reena Saini Kallat uses extinct bird calls in new show

The call of the last known male Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, recorded in Hawaii in 1987, is playing at Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai. In Reena Saini Kallat’s *Spectral Frequencies*, the bird’s song is heard without the duet partner it once expected.

Kallat places long bamboo flutes around the recording, while suspended bamboo forms translate the acoustic signatures of 12 extinct birds into sculptural contours. Beneath them, species names and the dates and places of their last recordings are written in white salt on the concrete floor, including the Dusky Seaside Sparrow and the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō.

The exhibition also follows the disappearance of water. *River Morphologies* uses historical recordings of river flow to shape laser-cut paper works depicting dry riverbeds, including those of the Zayandeh, Limpopo and Yellow rivers. In *Last Seen in Light*, 12 soundwave prints are arranged like a sundial, each marked with a year of last recording.

The exhibition is on view at Chemould Prescott Road until 21 November 2026.