LakeShore Cleaner
Oak Street Beach
Chicago, IL
April 22, 2024
Lake Shore Cleaner 
Video clip (color and sound) 30 seconds
Lizzie Strongson
LakeShore Cleaner is an durational performance on Chicago's Oak Street Beach. On Earth Day, 2024, I dressed in a traditional housekeeper's uniform and carried cleaning supplies with a Louis Vuitton case of clean sand to the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Washing my hands and face in a series of purification rites, I offered a libation of Malört liquor to the freshwater lake. Silently sweeping, mopping, and re-sanding an 8 x 8' section of the public beach, I symbolically transformed domestic tasks into a meditation on environmental stewardship and the often-invisible acts of care that sustain our shared natural spaces.
Image credits: Lizzie Strongson and Erica Mott
 
            
              
            
            
          
               
            
              
            
            
          
               
            
              
            
            
          
               
            
              
            
            
          
               
            
              
            
            
          
              