Virginia Van Horn's work uses animal images as a method for exploring modern life in a way that illuminates the intimate connection between the human and animal kingdoms, with animals often acting as alter-egos for humanity. Like a modern Aesop's Fables, they tell stories that are both true to their animal natures and evocative of the human condition. They can be merciful replacements for overwhelming human experience, only to become dispassionate observers of mankind's folly. These beasts transform human experience into the natural world and reflect our own existence back to us.
The juxtaposition of animals with man-made artifacts emphasizes their shared traits with humanity. Van Horn's sculptures often refer to children's books that show animals in cozy human environments, but they can also suggest the animal's unsettling intrusion into our world, taking over as if humans have disappeared. This invasion suggests a combination of horror movie and bedtime story; part Hitchcock, part Disney. Virginia is especially interested in those animals, like foxes, who secretly reside in our own backyards: wild but suburban. Living lives parallel to our own, they exist almost invisibly both inside and outside of mankind's domain—a wild, mysterious presence amidst the barbecue grills and patio furniture.