Bed rot, doomscrolling and a single goldfish: the Melbourne art show blowing loneliness open

Featuring Lucy Liu, Polly Borland and a hand-woven tapestry packed with memes, Acca’s latest exhibition is a tragi-comedy for the restlessly online

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A forlorn goldfish called Pao Pao stares from its sparse tank at the entry to https://acca.melbourne/exhibition/are-you-lonely-tonight-im-so-lonesome-i-could-cry/">Are you lonely tonight?

I’m so lonesome I could cry – a new exhibition on loneliness at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Acca) in Melbourne.

“He’s part of my family, he’ll be coming back to the big tank,” says the exhibition’s co-curator, son of a veterinarian and Acca’s artistic director and CEO, Myles Russell-Cook.

He owns several fish and has named this one after the hypothetical last goldfish on Earth depicted in Kelly Yu’s short film playing in the next room, Endling.