LakeShore Cleaner
Oak Street Beach
Chicago, IL
April 22, 2024
Lake Shore Cleaner
Video clip (color and sound) 30 seconds
Lizzie Strongson
Image credit: Erica Mott
LakeShore Cleaner is a live performance on Chicago's Oak Street Beach. On Earth Day I symbolically cleaned and reverenced the shoreline of Lake Michigan, transforming domestic tasks into a meditation on environmental stewardship.
Dressed in a housekeeper's uniform, I carried cleaning supplies and a Louis Vuitton case of clean sand to the water's edge. I washed my hands and face in a series of purification rites and offered a libation of Malört liquor to the freshwater lake. I silently swept, mopped, and re-sanded an 8 x 8' section of the public beach to invite reflection on the often-invisible acts of care that sustain our shared natural spaces.
