I created this in 2019 whilst thinking about the many animals who tragically lost their lives to the wildfires that raged across parts of Australia that year. These bushfires became known colloquially as the ‘Black Summer”. Ox-idation, is a play on words implying both the animal (Ox) and the chemical process of fire combustion, which is a type of oxidation reaction. The sculpture gets its burned appearance through a Raku glaze firing involving much smoke and fire.