Noah's Out-of-Order Ark-cade and Reliquary

Sacred Heart of Martha, with World’s Largest Carolina Parakeet (scale model). Martha’s heart was left intact during her autopsy out of reverence for her status as the last passenger pigeon, and the Carolina Parakeet was the only parrot species native to the US. The last-known individuals of both species died at the Cincinnati Zoo in the 1910’s. Pigeon decoy, pigeon spikes, wax heart.

World’s Largest Carolina Parakeet (scale model). Parakeet statue, miniature people, American flag. Photo: Maria Lux

Last Auk Egg Relic. Wall-mounted arcade shrine to the last great auk egg, crushed by specimen hunters. Stained glass illustration traced from a real stained glass window of St. Lawrence, replaced by an auk

Detail of last great auk egg, crushed by specimen hunters. Photo: Maria Lux

World’s Oldest Heath Hen Meat, arcade shrine to the heath hen, once so plentiful in the northeastern US that servants begged not to be given heath hen meat more than twice a week, extinct in 1932

Noah’s Frozen Ark, Inkjet print of a scene from Caspar David Friedrich’s painting "The Sea of Ice," 1823-25, modified using AI, plastic animal prizes of candidates for conservation or de-extinction

Skull of the Patron Saint of Neglect (Thylacine). 3D-printed thylacine skull after “Benjamin” the last thylacine/Tasmanian tiger who died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo when left outside on a cold night with no shelter

Hand of God Claw Machine shrine. Endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit prizes, plastic hawk, votive candles. Part of a captive breeding program and multiple attempts to re-introduce the rabbits into the wild, with various tragic effects

Yarn from Dolly the Cloned Sheep, first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell (1996), who technically had 3 mothers (the egg-donor, the one that provided DNA, and the surrogate)

Lazarus Species Relic. Cat toy, stained glass illustration traced from a real stained glass window of Lazarus emerging from the tomb, replaced by black footed ferret clones (declared extinct in 1979, but rediscovered in 1981, and cloned in 2021)

Noah’s Out-of-Order Ark-ade and Reliquary

2024

Welcome to Noah’s Out-of-Order Ark-ade and Reliquary: a defunct arcade repurposed as a shrine for lost and revived animals. Part holy site, part roadside attraction, visitors can pay their respects, or indulge their morbid curiosity, with real(!) replicas of what remains of the saintly animal martyrs of the Anthropocene. Stemming from a lifelong appreciation of Catholic visual culture, this project continues previous projects’ exploration of the religious narratives surrounding species loss, de-extinction science, and cryogenic conservation. Noah’s Ark-ade offers strange, irreverent, and darkly humorous ways of coping with the absurdity of both the problem of extinction, and its possible solutions.

Hand-painted circus/sideshow banners on canvas, arcade game cabinets, crushed egg, stained glass illustration from a church window of St. Lawrence, fake chicken leg, inkjet print of a scene from Caspar David Friedrich’s painting The Sea of Ice, 1823-25, modified using AI, plastic animal prizes of candidates for conservation or de-extinction, stained glass illustration traced from a real stained glass window of Lazarus emerging from the tomb, cat toy, yarn, toy endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits, plastic hawk, votive candles, 3D-printed thylacine skull, pigeon decoy, pigeon spikes, wax heart, curtains, lights.

Installation of "Noah’s Out-of-Order Ark-ade and Reliquary" at Carnation Contemporary in Portland, OR. All photos by Mario Gallucci except where otherwise noted.

MARIA LUX

Noah’s Out-of-Order Ark-ade and Reliquary