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topicnews · October 25, 2024

Lewiston-Auburn artists remember shooting victims with an installation made from items left behind

Lewiston-Auburn artists remember shooting victims with an installation made from items left behind

Today, on the first anniversary of the mass shooting in Lewiston, the city and state as a whole continue to bear the burden of loss and trauma. As the Lewiston community pauses to remember the victims and honor survivors, two local artists are offering their own contribution to the public commemoration of the tragedy: an installation made up of items left behind at makeshift memorials.

At the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning, and Labor in Lewiston, artist Tanja Hollander entered a small room filled with 261 empty bouquet wrappers hanging from the ceiling.

“You can twist them,” she said, as the sleeves meet and rustle gently. “I love the sound they make when they hit each other. It’s very gentle.”

A small fan hidden near the ceiling pushed a gentle breeze through the room, just enough to rotate the plastic wrappers by their gossamer threads. They caught the light and cast ghostly shadows on the wall.

They dangled singly or in clusters, large and small, some with petals still crushed inside. They are all different, Hollander said, but also the same.

“And I think that really represents the community, right?” Hollander said. “We all grieve together, but there are moments of individuality in the way we grieve.”

Bouquet covers hang from a fishing line at the Maine MILL on October 18, 2024. The installation consists of over 200 cases. (Ari Snider/Maine Public)

After the shooting, Hollander, who lives in Auburn, watched as spontaneous memorials popped up outside the bowling alley and bar.

She said she was particularly drawn to the bouquet sleeves. During the first snowfall of the year, she collected them by the dozen with the help of the Lewiston Public Works Department.

“They had an emotional value to me that I don’t think I fully understood at the time,” she said. “But I really like the idea of ​​recycling something that should be trash and making something beautiful out of it.”

Recycling tragedy has become a theme of the museum’s work since the shooting, said director Rachel Ferrante.

A room dedicated to housing artifacts from the region’s former textile, shoe and brick industries now also houses countless items left behind in makeshift memorials to those who died a year ago.

“We will probably never be able to show everything we have collected. It’s just too much,” Ferrante said.

And she said the collection continues to grow as residents drop off all sorts of items that have some connection to the shootings — a painted banner, a miniature cornhole board, a bowling pin with the names of the 18 victims written in black marker.

A collection of items left behind at impromptu memorials last year are now on display at the Maine MILL in Lewiston, pictured here on October 18, 2024. (Ari Snider/Maine Public)
A collection of items left behind at impromptu memorials last year are now on display at the Maine MILL in Lewiston, pictured here on October 18, 2024. (Ari Snider/Maine Public)

The museum is also collecting oral histories of interviews from that night, documenting an unwanted but now inescapable chapter in Lewiston’s history.

“By saving the objects and then collecting the stories associated with them, we felt like we could offer something to the community,” Ferrante said.

The centerpiece – the floral wrapper installation – will be on display until next September. It’s a collaboration between Hollander and Miia Zellner, another local artist and teacher.

Immediately after the shooting, while protective measures were still in effect and a frantic manhunt was underway, Zellner attracted attention by hanging over a hundred cardboard hearts throughout the city.

“I felt like I had to give something back. You know, as an artist, I can’t just sit with my feelings,” Zellner said. “I have to do something.”

She said creating the bouquet cover was another step in transforming feelings into actions and grief into art.

Lewiston-based artist and teacher Miia Zellner at the Maine MILL on October 22, 2024. Immediately after the shooting, Zellner made dozens of heart-shaped signs like the one pictured here and hung them around the city. They worked with Hollander to install the bouquet cover. (Ari Snider/Maine Public)
Lewiston-based artist and teacher Miia Zellner at the Maine MILL on October 22, 2024. Immediately after the shooting, Zellner made dozens of heart-shaped signs like the one pictured here and hung them around the city. They worked with Hollander to install the bouquet cover. (Ari Snider/Maine Public)

Zellner is hesitant to use the word “healing” when discussing the impact of her work, especially given the ongoing rates of gun violence across the country.

But for visitors to the museum, she wants the quiet room with the empty flower casings to be an invitation to pause.

“I hope that they’re able to process it in some way, that they’re able to grieve in some way or that they’re just able to reflect on it,” she said.

One of those visitors, Rachel Goulet, who grew up in Lewiston, paused on the threshold before entering the room. All those bouquet wrappers, with their mouths open, holding… nothing. It seemed to surprise her.

“That seems so empty,” she said, her voice cracking. “I didn’t think I would feel this way.”

Her cousin Diane Baillargeon stood at her shoulder.

“You feel the emptiness of what’s left,” she said.

Eighteen lives lost, and all that remains, Baillargeon said, is air – one last breath.

This story is a production of the New England News Collaborative. It was originally published by Maine Public.

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