Sarah Fox: Untangling the Snare

About

Sarah Fox presents Untangling the Snare in the Cecily E. Horton Gallery this fall. Sarah shares about the exhibit "The world speaks to us through everything she holds, sometimes in whispers, sometimes in screams. I see the way grass turns brown under the blazing Texas sun, her blades curling inward. I watch how the San Antonio River breathes differently in drought and flood, her moods teaching me about survival and rage. But she also speaks through folk and fairy tales that have warned us for centuries: don't enter the forest at night; don't marry the man who hides his true nature. Celtic and Norse folklore tell of selkies—captured feminine creatures who slip between seal and human form by shedding or wearing their seal skins. In these tales, a fishman steals the selkie's skin to trap her on land as his wife. These stories echo a familiar violence: worldwide, nearly 1 in 3 women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. If these statistics reflected mental and verbal abuse, the numbers would be far higher. They steal our wildness and call it love. In this body of work, I've woven sculpture, puppetry, performance into a two-act fable of my own making, Untangling the Snare. Archetypal hybrid creatures take form as marionettes and masks, culminating in a video work and live performance. Through these multi-media vessels, a folk tale of female solidarity and escape is born. In this tale, women find themselves held by Mother Nature, guided by her, set free by remembering their own strength. Through my work, I seek to remind everyone, especially women, that we are not separate from the natural world's power and wisdom—we are part of her endless capacity for resilience, transformation, and righteous fury. The first step in freeing yourself from oppression is being able to imagine a way out and a better future."