My Heart is not a Clock (Martha)

My heart is not a Clock (Martha) is a 3D-animated immersive video exploring directions of time with the absent being a counterpart to the temporal present (like the past is to the future). Situated in a stylized version of the Villa Farnesina in Rome, a building which’s atrium displays wall frescos showing grey empty pedestal- the mere present of the absent- the voiceover narration loosely follows the history of Martha, the last passenger pigeon before and beyond their extinction and their possible future de-extinction through cloning throughout the circle of time. Starting out from a starry night, stars form into a sphere with a bird-shaped pattern that encloses the viewer while the sun rises and the pattern dissolves.Rising from the ashes, the Italian Renaissance villa slowly assembles itself, only to collapse into dust once more. Interlocking and swirling in unison, Passengers flock to the reincarnated site, only to disappear moments later. The suns sets and the sphere, which once again manifested around the viewer dissolves again into the night sky.

Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media of Germany / (c) the artist