True Believers See More Patterns

Overview

True Believers See More Patterns (2024) is a growing video archive of thylacine sightings, compiling all currently available footage sourced from online communities who believe the marsupial is still extant. The thylacine (also known as the Tasmanian tiger) was declared extinct in 1936, and its demise can be directly attributed to excessive hunting and habitat destruction caused by the establishment of the first British colonies in Tasmania in the early 1800s. Yet the animal seems to resist extinction by haunting the collective imagination. Entire online and offline communities have formed around blurry, slowed-down, and stabilized footage of alleged thylacines. Sightings continue, and large numbers are still reported today. The music by Turkish artist Cevdet Erek (Zincirli, 2021, Subtext Recordings, Berlin), performed in a single take on the davul, flows as an integral stream within the work, resonating with its open-ended nature.