The ground at Melbourne’s Federation Square is the scene of a new artwork by an artist called Chris Jordan, which highlights the ever-growing problem of e-waste in Australia.
The artwork depicts a mobile phone and is claimed to be the largest artwork of its type in the world. The construction of the artwork was commissioned as part of the Sustainable Living Festival, which aims to educate about sustainable living through the use of art exhibits. It will run until 23 February.
In the gigantic artwork, the number ‘23’ will be displayed on its screen, which will symbolise the 23 million mobile phones that are reported to be old and unused in Australian homes.
The not-for-profit mobile phone recycler, MobileMuster, hopes that the artwork, which uses 12,000 mobile phones, urges people to think about recycling their old technology, rather than stockpiling it or sending it to landfill. The artist used 12,000 phones because it is estimated that this is the number of phones that is replaced every day, but not recycled.
You can view a time lapse of the artwork below.
All phones will be recycled at the conclusion of the festival.
