This small and intriguingly strange creature is a form born of the surreal and rather twisted alternate universe that is Caroline Rothwell's imaginative realm. One's mind is cast back and forth in recognition of something animalistic, natural and something utilitarian, man-made. It is shiny, metallic and oddly tubular, almost industrial; yet, despite it's solid heaviness, its balloon-like quality gives a soft and pliable appearance. Somewhat featureless and mutated, the little ears, and subtle stripes stitched transversely across its back clearly indicate that this is a sort of tiger. Rothwell achieves this soft stuffed appearance in metal, a material inherent with none of these qualities, by casting metal directly into fabric moulds. Fabric panels are sewn together, and as the molten metal is poured in, the two-dimensional fabric shape becomes a solid form. All of the detail is reflected in the metal - the weave, creases, folds and stitches; it is a direct recording and product of the making process. This piece is a maquette for a larger bronze piece commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society.
It is, in fact, not a form of tiger. It is based on the thylacine cynocephalus, more commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger - a species native to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea; it is referred to as a tiger due to its distinctive stripes. Currently, scientists are experimenting with re-creating thylacine DNA by injecting it into a mice - effectively, mice producing tiger. What is so prominently bizarre about Rothwell's version is its connected snout and tail. When read as a long tail, this, along with the ears and stripes, give it an anatomical accuracy. However, by joining the snout and tail, Rothwell adds a cyclical aspect to the form. It resembles an Ourobos, an ancient symbol of a self-consuming snake or dragon; it is constantly re-creating itself. Perhaps Rothwell is drawing parallels with current developments within genetic engineering of re-creating Tasmanian Tiger.
