For the past four months, American artist Mary Mattingly has been constructing a free public art installation at 5 6th Avenue West in Kalispell. Limnal Lacrimosa is a contemplative exhibition that celebrates the rich histories of the area, from the natural histories of the glaciers and lakes to the cultural histories of art and ceramics, and the economic importance of breweries in Kalispell before, during and after prohibition.
5 6th Avenue West was the original home of the Kalispell Malting and Brewing Company, founded in 1892 as the Kalispell Brewing Company. According to Montana beer historian Steve Lozar, prohibition caused the brewery to be creative: they malted their own grain onsite, made and sold assorted beverages.
When Mattingly was invited to visit 5 6th Avenue West, the roof was leaking from the winter snowpack and beams of light were streaming in through crevices in the roof. Pigeon feathers blanketed the floor and the mountains of Glacier National Park could be seen on the horizon through the old brewery’s windows. She describes it as unpredictably beautiful.
For Limnal Lacrimosa, rainwater is collected on the second floor and sent through tubing to recreate rain drops entering the building through the roof. The drips are collected in larchmatory vessels while the sounds of the droplets hitting the containers echo throughout the building. Eventually the vessels fill, water spills onto the floor, and the cycle repeats itself, inspired by Kōbō Abe’s novel Women in the Dunes and the sped up change of geological time in Glacier National Park with increasingly warming summers.
Over the course of the 9 month exhibition, the space will transform. Events include a vessel exchange where people are asked to bring their own vessels to be included temporarily in the exhibition (and then returned), as well as music and events that celebrate the history of the brewery.
Mattingly is known for her large-scale installations that address ecology like a mobile free public food forest on a barge in New York City and an education center for estuarial plants on the Thames in London. Her photographs and sculptures are represented by the Robert Mann Gallery in New York. She visited Kalispell for the first time in 2020.