Viaduct Gallery, March 2018

One hundred and sixty-four people will never again see another birthday. There will never be another party, song or cake. Not another whisper of “Did you make a wish?” No more laughter. No more gifts. Not another birthday balloon purchased in their honor.

The collection of these 164 balloons represent 164 lives taken by school shootings.* Over the course of the installation, we’ll witness the anthropomorphic quality the balloons possess — the loss of helium akin to the loss of life.

We’ll navigate the presence of these balloons much like we’ll navigate this latest mass school shooting. We’ll cry. We’ll feel impacted. We’ll view this display in a state of disbelief and discomfort — an acknowledgment of both the existence and and the loss. But ultimately, we’ll watch them begin to lose life, and much like this country, choose to do nothing. Once they’ve fallen, they’ll be discarded and forgotten — making way for the next delivery of balloons; the next unnecessary school shooting.

*This installation begins with the deaths of 20 first graders and six adults from Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 and represents the additional 138 deaths accounted for in school shootings since then, as of February 28, 2018. The data used for the death totals comes from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that began tracking school shootings in 2014.