Benjamin

Phil Hayes

This work depicts Benjamin, the last known thylacine, who died in captivity in 1936. Painted behind a veil of chicken wire, he becomes both a memory and a warning. The wire symbolises confinement, a cage not just of metal, but of human neglect and forgetting. Benjamin snarls not in rage, but in resistance, a ghost of the wild we chose not to protect.

Artist
Phil Hayes
Year
2025
Height
125 cm
Width
53 cm
Medium
Triptych Oil on Canvas