This is a body of work I made after learning about the deaths of my distant cousins Rachel and Ruth Dunlap who were victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Children of westward expansion, they entered Utah as part of a covered wagon group making their way to California. A group of Mormons met the caravan, dressed as Native Americans to deflect blame, surrounded and murdered the families. Rachel and Ruth, both teenagers at the time, managed to escape and hide in some foliage nearby. One of the murderers then found them.

In an act of desperation, Rachel threw herself at the ground and exclaimed, “Let me live and I will love you for all my days.” The girls were subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered.

I meditate on my own American-ness, family history, and experiences of sexual violence in these textile and video works—collapsing the innocence of Rachel and Ruth’s childhoods cut short and their colonial positions as agents—though perhaps inadvertent ones—of westward expansion.

Included in the show were works by Victoria Villier and Jetaime Pizarro.