09/08/2026
Chaparral Spiral, 2026
On view at millvillestudios as a part of Freefall curated by Shannon Smith Shannon Smith
Risographs made from an archive of my grandfather’s time in the Chaparral Gunfighters, a troop of actors who performed across the Southwest. My grandpa Hoyt, was a bronc rider, construction worker and a soldier drafted into the Vietnam war despite being enrolled at NMSU in the horticulture program. After being forced to participate in the state sponsored violence in Vietnam he returned to the desert and repeatedly performed his own death against the backdrop of colonial violence of the SW. I project a catharsis onto this act. During this time he met my grandmother and raised her children, including my mother. My paternal grandfather, Donny, an Agua Caliente Cahuilla man, was killed by the police in NM during this same time. In these work I isolate the violent act that defined the lives of both my grandfathers, both good, honest and humble men, trapped in the US’ system of violence.
