Exhibits,
Beth Thornber Night of the Thylacine
Opening: Wednesday 17 August 6-8pm Dates: Thursday 18 August - Saturday 17 September 2022
Night of the Thylacine presents a series of paintings by Wiradjuri artist Beth Thornber. These works reimagine ancient Lutruwita country through the eyes of a thylacine, the emblematic stripey dog that once roamed land now colonially known as Tasmania. Beginning with naïve phone drawings of plants, animals, mountains, and sky, Thornber constructs a visual alphabet as a means of documenting her recent travels in Lutruwita country. These digital notes form a body of work which examines past and existing colonial structures that inform land and resource management, environmental protection, and empire expansion- ultimately resulting in the extinction of the Lutruwita tiger.
Beth Thornber was born in Corowa, a small town on the banks of the Murray River in NSW. A First Nations artist of the Wiradjuri people, she is currently based in Nipaluna/Hobart. Her multi-disciplinary practice employs a visual alphabet of animal, plant, and human motifs to question themes of impact: historical, environmental and human impact in post-colonial Australia. Thornber’s paintings consider existing structures cemented in everyday life and applies this lens to reimagine ideas of sacredness, boundaries, common ownership and shared responsibility.
