Limnal Lacrimosa (of Lakes, Tears)
Immersive Installation | 2021–2022 | Kalispell, Montana
Limnal Lacrimosa is an immersive "listening room" and temporal sculpture that echoes the rhythms of glacial melt and changing seasons in Glacier National Park. Installed in Kalispell, Montana, the work cycles water through suspended tubing just below the ceiling, creating an artificial rainstorm indoors. The droplets fall into ceramic vessels and overflow over time, forming a quiet, recursive water clock shaped by temperature, climate, and gravity.
Named for the Latin words for "lake" (limna) and "tears" (lacrimosa), the installation evokes the slow erosion of the area’s glaciers, the precarity of watersheds, and the poetics of repetition. Over the course of nine months, the space shifted with the weather and accumulated sound in warmer months, inviting visitors to enter into a meditation on impermanence, ecology, and endurance.
Project Details
- Year: 2021–2022
- Location: Kalispell, Montana
- Medium: Installation, water, glacial snowmelt, ceramic vessels, clear tubing, holding tanks, sound
- Cycle Duration: 9 months
- Title Meaning: Limnal Lacrimosa — “of lakes, tears”
“Limnal Lacrimosa began as a meditation on glacial time, drawn from my experience in Glacier National Park and from reading Kōbō Abe’s Woman in the Dunes. That story, like this installation, is about the struggle to endure a task shaped by environmental forces: endless, repetitive, fragile, and vast. Water moved through the listening room creating a soundscape like random drum beats. As snowmelt was collected, it dripped from the ceiling, echoed in ceramic lachrymatory vessels, and pooled on the floor. The water marked time. It changed with the seasons, like the glaciers and watersheds it referenced. Visitors entered a space of slowness and rhythm; a space that asked what it means to just listen.” - Mattingly
Installation Description
The installation functioned as a physical water clock, governed by outdoor temperature and the pace of snowmelt. As snow collected outside was pumped through tubing, it dripped steadily into custom ceramic vessels suspended throughout the gallery. The soundscape (natural and cyclical) formed a slow auditory architecture.
As the vessels filled, they spilled over, and the water was recirculated into a holding tank hidden above the ceiling. The cycle repeated itself continuously, with seasonal variations altering the tempo: colder months brought slower drips, while warmer temperatures accelerated the rhythm. The work became a register of time and climate, tethered to both local weather and planetary change.
Throughout its nine-month exhibition, Limnal Lacrimosa transformed with its environment, becoming a living record of water’s journey across space, memory, and terrain.
Exhibition Information
- Public Viewing Hours: Limnal Lacrimosa was open throughout 2021–2022
- Context: Free public art installation in partnership with local organizations
- Visit the project site → Limnal Lacrimosa Website
Photographic Documentation
