Martha

2024, 29-piece series of etchings, 42x29,7 cm each (Life-sized)
based on the historical photography „Martha, the last passenger pigeon, 1912“ by Enno Meyer

When the wild passenger pigeon became extinct by 1900, a few were held in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo, in an attempt to preserve the species. The last living passenger pigeon, Martha, became an icon representing the extinction of an entire species. When Martha died in 1914 at the age of 29, her death marked the beginning of modern species protection efforts. Today, in the era of sixth mass extinction, the passenger pigeon is a symbol to human overexploitation of nature posing important questions: When is a life worth protecting? Or rather, why can‘t life simply be worth protecting for its own sake?