What It Means To Be A Fox

About the exhibition

What It Means To Be A Fox is part of an ongoing series of installations based on foxes and their roles in folklore and mythology. Foxes are known for their meddling in the human, animal and spiritual worlds. As tricksters, they manipulate the normal order of the world and create strange and unusual situations. Tricksters rebel against authority, poke fun at the overly serious, create convoluted schemes that may or may not work, and play with the laws of the universe. They exist to question, and to cause us to question and not accept things blindly.

The stories of the fox and of tricksters are often cautionary tales reflecting the concerns of society at the time. Lytle believes that visual artists have a lot in common with the trickster, presenting connections and points of view through manipulation of materials. Artists create illusions to present the world as they see it or to communicate ideas and messages. For this installation, Lytle portrays a scene in which a spirit fox appears as a visitor to share insight into what it means to be a fox. The space between the two figures is important, representing the conversation they are having – and what the viewer chooses to fill it with. Lytle was inspired by the space and its location within the Torggler Fine Arts Center to express this mystical moment of an exchange of knowledge.