Jerboa Jerboa's enchantments cost her dear

Background: The thylacine serves as a potent emblem of extinction and environmental degradation, as well – ironically – as an icon for Tasmania’s untouched wilderness. In 2007, the University of Tasmania developed a permanent exhibition, Imaging the Thylacine (https://www.utas.edu.au/library/exhibitions/thylacine/imaging.html) which draws together zoological, commercial, official and popular visual representations of the contested species. The project reveals how images have served to repeatedly transform the idea of a thylacine according to different agendas over the ages and the key role that printmaking played in disseminating and forging early imaginings of the species. Contribution: Jerboa Jerboa’s Enchantments Cost Her Dear draws on Philippe Mora’s 1987 spoof, "Howling III: The Marsupials", in which an endangered race of were-thylacines is discovered in the Australian wilderness. Like Mora’s film, my portrait blurs biology with clichéd European werewolf mythology and the shameful environmental legacy embodied by the Tasmanian tiger, utilising the parallel demonisation and persecution of the two animals in order to cast the lead lycanthrope, Jerboa Jerboa, in a sympathetic light. The woodcut aesthetic references Early Modern representations of strange races that European explorers brought back with them from new worlds, the Tasmanian Tiger’s Latin name Thylacinus cynocephalus, further embedding Jerboa in the legends of dog-headed races such as the Cynocephali. Also included are a number of extinct plant species, including is the Southern Shepherd's Hook or Ballantina that, like the thylacine, were victims to introduced sheep industries. Significance: The Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award is Australia’s most prestigious, longest running print prize. Now in its 45th year, the FAC Print Award attracts entries from leading Australian practitioners of printmaking and artist books, showcasing contemporary printmaking in Australia.