Removed from my larger installations, this fox tells its own story. Shining gold in the sunlight, their peaceful form forever rests. Foxes were introduced in Australia during colonisation to be shot for sport. They are smart and social animals who have done well here, becoming apex predators and devastating local biodiversity. Too many native species have been pushed to extinction or into remote pockets of habitat. Foxes are routinely shot, poisoned, trapped, and gassed.

A hobby hunter shot this fox on a farm where he was contracted and texted me the next morning for pick up. Making the mould made my heart so heavy. The consequences of human interference in this landscape over the last couple hundred years feels pretty real when you're casting an animal brought here to die, which took everything else down with them on the way.

Rebecca Selleck is a Canberra-based artist with a focus on interactive sculpture and installation, blending animatronics, assemblage, casting and sound. She completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at the ANU School of Art with First Class Honours, majoring in Sculpture and Art Theory, and also holds a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Creative Writing and Literary Studies. She uses her practice to reciprocally investigate and challenge her own perceptions within a culture of conflicting truths. Her work overlays time and place to express the need for human accountability and the painful complexity of animal and environmental ethics in Australia.

She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the prestigious Peter and Lena Karmel Anniversary Prize for best graduating student at the ANU School of Art, and has exhibited across Australia and in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Venice, Italy. She was a finalist in the inaugural 2017 Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia and in 2018 the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, Italy; the Macquarie Art Prize; the Ravenswood Art Prize (Highly Commended); and the Churchie Art Prize. Her work is currently held in public collections at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Parkes ACT, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo NSW, Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC, and Shepparton Art Museum, VIC.