Rebecca Odessa
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Acrylic on canvas
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This painting explores the relationship between the Manx wild wallabies and boundaries. The Curraghs, Ballaugh, is a UNESCO protected area and home to a colony of wild wallabies. During the last ice age, the area of the Curraghs was covered in ice. When the ice melted, a lake was formed, which has gradually receded, leaving a verdant wetland. In the 1960’s, two red-necked wallabies (native to Australia and Tasmania) escaped the boundary of the Curraghs Wildlife Park. Free to roam in an expansive habitat and with no natural predators or competition for food, the wallabies thrived and multiplied. It is estimated that there are over 120 wild wallabies on the Island today, most of whom live in and around the Curraghs. Their escape from the Wildlife Park can be viewed as a success, yet, in escaping one boundary, they are now subject to a boundary that, if crossed, could threaten their existence. For now, their numbers are such as not to significantly damage the environment. However, as their numbers grow, and they move beyond the boundary of their current habitat, and encroach on local farmland, it is likely they will need to be culled. During the summer of 2020, Rebecca paid regular visits to the Curraghs to see the wallabies. It is a magical and moving experience to watch such a magnificent animal in the wild. She felt proud of them, that they escaped the boundary of the Wildlife Park and managed to survive and thrive. Yet, at the same time, she felt afraid for their future. Currently, the humans that visit them do so with love and respect, for this reason they are not afraid of us. Yet, if they cross the boundary we have set in place, which they do not perceive, their quiet, predator-free existence will be shattered, and they will discover just how lethal we can be. This truth makes me profoundly sad, for both them and us. For now, the wallabies exist in a kind of mystical netherworld, made so by a combination of their precarious existence and they habitat in which they live. It is this mystical netherworld that is expressed in this painting
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