ONE LEWISTON
I am working in collaboration with Maine MILL in the aftermath of the October 25, 2023 shootings in Lewiston, Maine. We have three aims for this ongoing process:
To document the memorials that are at Schemengees and Just-In-Time Recreation;
To preserve and archive items from the memorials, surrounding events and items and stories from the community;
To make a body of art work for our community.
In this installation, we used all 261 plastic flower bouquet sleeves left at the spontaneous memorials created after the October 25, 2023 mass shootings at Just-in-Time Recreation and Schemengee’s Bar and Grille in Lewiston, Maine. Each flower sleeve hangs from the ceiling in its own form and direction creating a space that visitors can walk through, touch, and experience in their own way.
The work explores loss, the role of impermanent expressions, and the impetus behind shared community recovery from the effects of mass violence. We are guided by the terrible fact that 40,000 - 50,000 people die from gun violence every year in the United States.
In this piece, you can feel both an individual response and a sense of collective community grieving.
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.
LINK TO press, images, writing and community resources.
Friends of the L/A area: I am working with the City of Lewiston, Lewiston Auburn Metro Chamber of Commerce and Maine MILL to save your love letters to our community, your stories, your pictures, your signs, your flowers, your candles, etc. Before you throw it in the trash or recycling, please please contact us. Maine MILL will be documenting, archiving and displaying these items inside the museum in a memorial. Community members are asked to share items with the museum either by dropping them off during public hours (Wednesday through Saturday, 10am-4pm) or e-mailing to coordinate a better time for pickup.
The Memorial Collection
Rachel Ferrante, Executive Director of Maine MILL and Tanja Hollander, New Auburn-based Artist
In the days after the horrific mass shootings in Lewiston, among our first calls were to each other. We had previously planned to collaborate on Maine MILL’s 2024 exhibit about the hidden elements of labor, but we both knew this show would need to pivot and morph. Our immediate response was to think about ways to be valuable to the community and decided that we should collect and archive the stories and things of people affected by the tragedy. The paper hearts were the first pieces collected.
As the community’s history museum, we believe it is important to preserve our community’s response to the tragic events. We seek to memorialize the victims and honor the community, as we all work to help people heal and become stronger together. This is the most important work either of us have ever done. And the work is not complete. It will continue for many years to come.
