Bethany Thornber: Thylaseen

As part of a commission, Wiradjuri artist Bethany Thornber created a large-scale installation for MAMA's roller door.

Bethany communicates boldly through colour and a unique symbolic visual language. Her practice queries the selection of environmental areas for protection, the idea of sacredness and our shared responsibility in maintaining natural and cultural places.

The thylacine often featured in her work, was drawn from the sacred Yeddonba site in Chiltern - Mt Pilot National Park. This cultural site holds an ochre painting of a thylacine, sometimes referred to as the Tasmanian Tiger. It is estimated that the last thylacine walked on the mainland over two thousand years ago.

Thylaseen considered the topography of the region and the vast history of all those who have inhabited it.