Bipolar Roohound
Artist
Benjamin Joel WilkinsonMedium
AcrylicMaterial
PaintingDescription
Acrylics on cardboard. Animal depicted is an extinct Thylacine, also known as a Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf. A companion piece to Out Of The Pouch, Into The Freeze.
The Thylacine was the largest carnivorous marsupial to survive into historic times; while it was related to kangaroos, it looked and behaved much like a wolf. The species occupies a space in existential limbo; it has officially been extinct for nearly a century, but there are persistent claims that it may still live in remote parts of Tasmania or mainland Australia. It's also one of the extinct animals most mentioned as a candidate for resurrection by cloning; thus its very existence is in a state of ambiguity. The Thylacine is painted in two similar-but-different shades of warm brown, against a background of contrasting light and dark, speckled with bronze and copper. The overhead view is a nod to Aboriginal Australian landscape art, which displays no horizon lines (here, the animal's spine serves that purpose).Try it!