Pretty Polluted Popsicles

Popsicles often have a high water content, but the water in them is not normally polluted. This is not the case with the Polluted Water Popsicles art installation designed by three students from the National University of Arts, Taiwan.

Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Cheng Yu-ti went to the trouble of collecting polluted water from 100 different locations in Taiwan, freezing the samples in a popsicle mold and then carefully preserving them in polyester resin. They also created 100 individual popsicle wrappers, which not only look pretty, but also let the viewer know where the water sample came from.

The focus of this art project is to highlight the high level of pollution in water bodies in Taiwan. The overall aesthetics of the installation cleverly draw the audience in, but when the viewer looks closer they will see the muck and trash of a busy city — cigarette butts, plastic, snail’s eggs and god knows what else.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so how many is something captured in 3D worth? A lot, if this project is anything to go by. By making something that is usually sweet, refreshing and edible disgusting, the artists have made a clear an easily digestible (pardon the pun) statement: Water pollution is real and it is gross.

Related Insights

Rooftop Catalogue

MVRDV Presents… 130 Ideas for Rooftops

The newly-released Rooftop Catalogue by architects MVRDV highlights 130 ways to use rooftops in cities. The book provides an overview of innovative ideas aiming to inspire architects, citizens and building owners to take the next step.

Plenty

Plenty for All: Urban Agriculture Gets a Rebrand

San Francisco-based Plenty gives us a glimpse of the future of high-tech urban agriculture. The company's produce is wrapped in packaging that taps into the successful colour psychology of fast-food brands.

Tiny urban forests

Tiny Urban Forests Are Popping Up on Brownfield Sites Across the Globe

Climate adaptation doesn't have to be on a massive scale. This small-scale method sees urban brownfield sites transformed into tiny urban forests by local communities, improving biodiversity and combating climate change.