Why Can’t We Just Do Something Beautiful is a site-specific video work commissioned for the Node and the opening of MAP mima. The work features the artist, Consalvo, in Lake Macquarie at dawn. She thrashes her body around disturbing the water and creating a sense of chaos and disruption to the otherwise still and peaceful lake.
This video piece points at modern human disconnection with nature and the loss of senses, intuition and an overall loss of belief in the spirit of all living things. The title is at once a statement of defeat and yet also one of hope. The artist suggests that if we are so inelegant then why can’t we do something better than this, why can’t we just do something beautiful?
The artist would like to acknowledge the Awabakal people as the traditional owners of the land and lake in which this work was created and to thank them for caring for the lake for thousands of years.
Artwork details
Title: Why Can't We Just Do Something Beautiful Artist: Lottie Consalvo Year: 2021 Materials: Single-channel video, 3:07 mins Credits: Filmed by Karl Brandstater
Image: Still from Why Can't We Just Do Something Beautiful, Lottie Consalvo, 2021
Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima, Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima, Speers Point 2284 View in Google Maps
Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima , Speers Point 2284
Free