BILLINGS — The Yellowstone Art Museum debuted the "I Remember" exhibit in November, a powerful visual tribute to the memories of the Billings community, created by Montana artist and photographer Elizabeth Stone.
The installation celebrates the museum’s 60th anniversary and is a deeply personal reflection of local history, capturing the essence of life in Billings over the past six decades.
“I think we were thinking more and more about how we can build community in these times and for me that was a stepping stone of thinking of enlarging my own community in the arts to extend it to Billings and the people that I've met there, not only at the museum but in the community itself,” said Stone.
Located in the Mildred Sandal Scott Gallery, the exhibit houses over 8,000 photographs, slides, and film negatives collected from community members who were invited to share their personal memories.
“We really thought this was a great way to call in the community and ask them to participate and be a part of this celebration," said the museum's curatorial assistant, Kimberly Gaitonde.
Stone, who is based near Seeley Lake, was commissioned to curate and create the exhibit. Earlier this year, Stone reached out to the community, asking for old photographs, slides, and film negatives. The response was overwhelming, with many people eager to contribute their personal memories to the project.
“The images are just a curation of what people see in their lives and what they try and hold on to, from the museum artwork from artists talking about their work from all the educational outreach that the YAM does with their classes, and then individual things that we want to hold dear to ourselves,” said Stone.
The photos range from joyful family gatherings like birthday parties and weddings to quiet or reflective moments like the birth of a child or the loss of a loved one. Together, they form the universal narrative that no matter our background, we all experience the same milestones and emotions. These intimate images collectively create a tapestry of the shared human experience.
"It's always fun to think about what people captured and how that changes throughout the years, and it speaks to a certain time in someone's life. When you see everyone's history is kind of blended together and you realize that we're all kind of part of this web of life and of history and of community,” said Gaitonde.
Billings artist Stephen Haraden donated to the project at a time when he was looking at doing some spring cleaning. His images now are scattered throughout the installation, intertwined with countless other memories.
“Before you come into the room, there's a whole line of photos, and as I went down that line, it kind of cracked me up because I recognized some of the images that I had donated," said Haraden.
He said that the exhibit serves as a reminder that the world is not as big as it seems.
“If I stand back and look at it, it's just kind of a massive stuff," said Haraden. "But then, like looking at any community, once you get up closer, then you can see that, oh, there's this image right here that's of someone's wedding. It's of the kindergarten Christmas program. The little things that make our community when you get in closer and see who we are."
Each part of the room is put together with intention. The installation starts with "Echo" outside the room, with a line of photographs leading into the gallery and snakes around the room. On another wall, four light boxes made by an artist near Missoula illuminate both positive and negative slides from the 1920s, allowing the photographs to come to life in "Settled."
"The idea of the negative and the positive is pretty has been pretty important to my own process as an artist," said Stone. "I was thinking a lot about Billings as a railroad town and imagining traveling out west on a train and seeing things through the window and so that led me to consider the the structure and the design of those light boxes."
In the corner sits "Relics," a pile of slide covers sitting in a pile, acting as containers for memories.
"There's a few of those borders where you can see the title or some notation of what the image was. For me, looking at that, it's kind of like how our memory works, that there is all this stuff, information that we got flooded with, but we can't hold on to all of it. There's these bits and pieces that are maybe words and images,” said Haraden.
At the center of the gallery hangs "Collapsing Time," a striking installation of seven rows of film strips representing the seven mountain ranges visible from the city. Over 200 strands of wire hold the photographs that Stone distorted using heat and act as the connecting webs of memories.
“I would take and apply heat to using the heat gun and reshape each individual frame thinking about memory and thinking how memories are not consistent or and always shape-shift over time," said Stone.
In continuation of the community involvement, the museum held sewing sessions where residents could take a pile of negatives and thread them together. The project ensures that the subject is involved in each step of the process and can continue to enjoy it as they walk through.
"I think people come here and they feel relaxed and they look closely and I'm sure they feel nostalgia too. I mean, I know I have,” said Gaitonde. "There's so many ways you can interpret it, and I think that's intentional, too. It's the ebb and flow of time and of memory and history and landscape."
Whether your memories are included, there is still plenty to find yourself within. You just have to take a closer look.
“There's just something about the people that you love being in the photographs and not only that, but also capturing just like the beauty of life and the immorality of that and the changes of it. It's something that you really want to treasure and look closely to," said Gaitonde.
"I Remember" will be in the museum until the beginning of next year and will then move into the permanent collection. There will be a panel discussion about the piece with Elizabeth Stone on Dec. 14 at 11 a.m.
