Spectral Frequencies : Reena Saini Kallat

Spectral Frequencies brings together works that attend to the traces left behind by ecological loss, extinction and the passage of time. Across the exhibition, sound as a carrier of memory, along with other ephemeral phenomena, is translated into material forms, giving presence to things that are disappearing or can no longer be experienced. The works reflect on species loss, changing landscapes and the fragile interdependencies between human and non-human worlds.

At the centre of the exhibition is Spectral Frequencies: Breathlines, an installation of bamboo flutes shaped according to the waveform of the calls from twelve extinct bird species. Among them is the Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō, whose final recorded call is believed to have been directed towards a mate that never answered. The lone call of the Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō is heard in the space, met with silence. The recording captures a moment of profound isolation, a solitary voice persisting at the threshold of extinction. The flutes give physical form to lost sounds, transforming traces of voices that can no longer be heard in the wild into objects that can be encountered.

River Morphologies turns to rivers whose courses have diminished or dried over time. Photographic images of desiccated river terrains are overlaid with sound-wave forms derived from archival field recordings of the rivers. The works bring together the visible traces of waterways and the sounds that once accompanied them, holding two moments of a changing landscape within the same image.

The photographic piece Last Seen in Light, is centred on a sundial whose function as a register of time is transformed into a memorial for vanished birds. Its dial is inscribed with the dates of extinction of twelve bird species from around the world, each paired with a waveform derived from archival recordings of their calls. As shadows move across its surface, the sundial brings two measures of time into relation: deep ecological time marked by the cyclical movement of the sun and the finality of extinction as a succession of irrevocable losses. Light, which enables the sundial to measure time, also becomes the means through which its image is recorded.

Throughout the exhibition, sound, breath, flowing water, birdsong and passing shadows become ways of recording change. The works trace connections between memory and disappearance, presence and absence, while reflecting on the ecological transformations of our time. Together, they draw attention to what is lost, what persists, and our place within a shared and vulnerable ecology.