The Department of Memory Presents: Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon is a performance piece designed for an audience of four. At the beginning of the performance, the participants enter a small underground boiler room that houses the office of the Department of Memory, and begin the process of commemoration by submitting an application to the clerk, who emerges from the shadows of the boiler room wearing a blackbird mask and blood-soaked bandages on his chest.. The time, date and location of their births and deaths are taken by the clerk to later be used in the commemoration ceremony. Over the next forty-five minutes, the participants are given a handful of bread crumbs, led outside into a park, listen to a lecture given by extinct birds through a loudspeaker, and and are finally taken to an underpass that houses the temporary memorial altar for Martha, the last passenger pigeon.

The Department of Memory Presents: Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon was performed at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Spring of 2006.

performer: Jeff Harms