After her sell out exhibition in our Annex space last year, Melbourne born artist Lottie Consalvo presents her first major solo exhibition at Sydney’s Damien Minton Gallery after living and creating in Berlin for two years.

As part of the exhibition, Consalvo presented a highly emotional performance piece titled Steer a steady ship which involved the artist undergoing seven hours of Chinese water torture in memory of a period of anxiety that the artist suffered twelve months ago.

Lying on a bed above which was suspended a boat suspended in mid-air dripping black liquid on her forehead, Consalvo bravely revived the fear, torture, loneliness and despair of the anxiety that kept her awake at night.    

“'Steer a steady ship' was a line I heard a lot growing up”, the artist recalls. “It meant, hold yourself together and stay focused. At this time I felt like I couldn't hold it together, the ship hung heavy above me, I had no control. Bedtime was a time of absolute torture. I couldn't stop my mind.”

By using black liquid, both a visual and literal experience of the “black dog” is created that allows Consalvo to remain “in the moment” while at the same time inviting the viewer to “feel” the performance remotely through the visual stimulants.

“This discomfort challenged me to find resting places in my mind but the drops kept bringing me back to my body. I reflected on the time I had spent enduring the mental torture I was trying to emulate through physical torture and about the fact that so many people are in that place right now,” said Consalvo. As she got closer to the end of the performance, she began to think of her sister who had taken her own life in a bed and found herself "laying where she had and then laying next to her as her body became surrounded by blackness."

 “If I am not feeling it the audience won't either. I was physically uncomfortable all the way through the performance.  I went into many places and although it was difficult it was visceral and that feeling of really going deep into a performance releases something inside of me I just can't explain.”

An exhibition of paintings by Lottie Consalvo is currently on show at Damien Minton Gallery in Sydney until the 20^th of October.  Click here for more information.

See a video of the performance below