EXHIBITION AT Maine MILL : Unseen Hands: The Hidden Elements of Labor - Press Release

February 7, 2024-December 31, 2024, Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 7, 5-7 pm
35 Canal Street, Lewiston, Maine 04243, WE-SA 10-4 pm or by appt. info@mainemill.org

The Ephemera Project is a crowd sourced archive of the people we love and the objects that hold us together. It is evolving into a powerful collaboration based in memory, self-reflection, and vulnerability. There are notes from loved ones and objects that signify time passing - moments in history, mementos of a vacation and a subway ride. Simple reminders of people we love and homages to life experience. The Ephemera Project seeks crowd participation in order to be inclusive. It welcomes stories and objects as diverse as we are, from all ages and around the world. 

My original idea for collaboration with Maine MILL was to work with their collection to add historical context to the ephemera that I had already collected. Following the October 25, 2023 Lewiston shootings, the show expanded to include ephemera from the memorials that we are working together to archive and preserve at the MILL.

From Maine MILL’s Historic Collection

Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor (Maine MILL) preserves and celebrates the extraordinary stories of work and the industrial ingenuity of Central Maine. Our collection of oral histories captures the lives and livelihoods of roughly 300 people who worked in the mills and factories of the Androscoggin region, along with others who have arrived more recently to contribute to the area’s rich culture and changing economy.

(Click on images to read descriptions. On mobile tap dot, bottom right corner of screen.)

From the memorials of the October 25, 2023 shootings in Lewiston, Maine

I started photographing before the shooter was found. The first memorial items were paper hearts which were pinned to trees in downtown Lewiston the day after the shootings. At an interfaith vigil at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston on October 29, Kevin Bohlin, a leader in the deaf community, made the sign for "I love you" and asked everyone to join him. These powerful objects and moments linked The Ephemera Project with a responsibility to help my community.

(Click on images to read descriptions. On mobile tap dot, bottom right corner of screen.)

18 Bouquets of flowers for each October 25, 2023 shooting victim in Lewiston, Maine. Image size 32x62”, Archival Pigment Print in edition of 20 for sale to benefit the archive work at Maine MILL. A poster is also available.

These are bouquets of flowers I saved from Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengee’s Bar and Grille the day before we cleared the sites. After I photographed (scanned) the flowers, I dried them and brought them to Maine MILL for display and storage. The piece is a symbol of both collective and individual grief of a traumatized community. It is my hope institutions throughout Maine will support the cultural response to this tragedy and purchase a print to exhibit annually in remembrance of the shootings.

From Tanja’s crowd sourced collection

(Click on images to read descriptions. On mobile tap dot, bottom right corner of screen.)

To participate:

  1. Please bring 2-4 objects, not larger than 8x10” (the size of a piece of paper) to Maine MILL on Wednesday through Saturday, 10am - 4pm through December 15, 2024. They will be ready for pick up 2-4 weeks after drop off. And sometimes much sooner!

  2. Maine MILL is located at 35 Canal Street, Lewiston, Maine 04240 in the Bates Mill Complex off of Chestnut Street in Lewiston, Maine. Our entrance faces Canal Street.

  3. Fill out this google form.

  4. To learn more about the project and FAQs. Questions: E-mail Tanja.

    Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor (Maine MILL) is a history and culture museum in downtown Lewiston, Maine, that celebrates extraordinary stories of work and industrial ingenuity. Through our collection, exhibits, educational programming, and events, we invite visitors to explore how life, labor, and culture shape the present and influence the future.