On the way back from a quick trip to Reno, the bumpy, under-construction road lead us off an exit and into the town of Auburn, CA, a small mining outpost in the midst of the Sierras. After refueling the car, we glanced down the hill from the gas station to see colossal body parts protruding from a grove of eucalyptus trees. Rubbing our eyes in disbelief, we drove around the trees to discover the figures in full-form.

Standing in the midst of an empty gravel lot two Amazonian women aim weapons at the sky, while a slightly less gargantuan male figure squirms to free himself from his chained and shackled arms. The sculptures are without context and are accompanied only by a number of RVs parked nearby at an adjacent auto shop. Come to find out from a trip around the corner of the building, which stands as the sculptures’ backdrop, they were the work of dentist Kenneth H. Fox, whose family practice is housed there. Sculpted in the 1970s, some of Fox’s other pieces are strewn about the public squares of Auburn, but in comparison none of them seem as provocative or quite as out-of-the-blue as this group.

--Ava Jancar

(*Images, from top to bottom: Amazon Archer, 1973, concrete and metal; Amazon Archer, 1973 and Amazon Warrior, 1973, concrete and metal; photos courtesy of Ava Jancar and Eric Renehan Jones.)