Artwork > Ancestors Traversing Quilts

Ancestors Traversing Quilt, debuted at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (NYC) from July 27–September 17th, 2017. Photos by Etienne Frossard.

Ancestors Traversing Quilts
ceramics, fabric, batting, yarn, thread
77 x 258 x 20 in.

Exhibition label:

“My work draws inspiration from a variety of sources: my Mormon pioneer ancestry, childhood play with ceramic figurines, my grandmother’s quilts, historical dioramas, and pop culture’s invented mythologies of the American West.

This installation grew out of poring over my great-great-grandfather’s diary chronicling his immigrant journey from England to Utah Territory in 1853­­­—while confronting the absence of information about my great-great-grandmother who made the same journey, as a single woman without family, in 1855.

I would like to acknowledge that these quilts were made possible by the communal efforts of many. In gratitude.”