The Dodo and Mauritius Island, Imaginary Encounters

The Dodo and Mauritius Island, Imaginary Encounters, is a reconstruction and a photographic study of the long extinct dodo bird. Based on extensive research, Kallio produced life-size sculptural reconstructions of the bird, as well as a visual photographic study of the actual dodo remains. The project culminated in photographic reconstructions of the dodo bird made with the models in their natural habitat of Mauritius Island. Research for the project was based on available historical and anatomical data, with an emphasis on art historical sources. The resulting photographic work is a visual interpretation of the dodos in the actual locations where they once lived–an imaginary encounter between the viewer and the dodos in seventeenth century Mauritius Island.

“The Dodo and Mauritius Island, Imaginary Encounters”, is a dialogue between the mythical, art historical and biological dodo. The dodo is a character that is very well known all over the world, thanks to Lewis Carroll ’s “Alice in Wonderland” (1865),and is also our most famous extinct species. This strange giant pigeon was exterminated due to human intervention between 1662 and 1693 on Mauritius Island –the only place on earth where dodos existed. Although the dodo became extinct hundreds of years ago, it still lives on in the collective memory.