This expression is a legacy of the Medieval world. At the Getty Center is an exhibit and a book titled: “Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World”. Curated by Elizabeth Morrison and Larisa Grollemond, this exhibit highlights how people in the Middle Ages perceived animals and explores the intersection of the animal and human worlds. Animals, both real and fantasy, were thought to have moral characteristics of good and evil. Hence, foxes were thought to be cunning in their pursuit of food, which included raiding hen houses of farmers. We also see the legacy of this visualization of animals in ours lives in the Harry Potter books and in the series “Game of Thrones”.
I pair the human world with animals to highlight the fragility of our current connection with nature. The human and the fox in this work here are united in their desire for the protection of the forest.