Once We Were Wolves
Angela Menzies
Exhibition Dates: February 27 to March 15, 2026
Gallery Hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11–4 pm
Revisiting fairy tales through repetition and variation gave me permission to slow down and listen for what sits beneath these stories: the warnings, the silences, the coded survival strategies. Each piece built on the last, allowing patterns to emerge — of power, vulnerability, transformation, and resilience.
Instead of a single statement, the exhibition became a conversation — one painting deepening the meaning of another. Ultimately, working in a unified way offered clarity. It revealed not just what I was depicting, but what I was questioning.
Initially, a counselling session prompted me to consider the survival strategies embedded in folklore and fairy tales. I wondered if I was becoming my own big bad wolf. Rather than preserving the moral simplicity of traditional fairy tales, I wanted to ask what these stories teach us about trust, danger, autonomy, and becoming. I wanted to reclaim women’s voices from the traditionally passive narratives found in folk tales. As I became my own big bad wolf, was I merely mounting a defence against violence and manipulation? Was my inner wolf protective rather than monstrous?