By now all of us have seen enough photos of a bird who has its beak trapped in a plastic bag. Or a photo of a polar bear in the Arctic who’s trying to wade his way through a mountain of plastic. Leave the Arctic aside, a live example is close by when we drive by Mumbai beaches daily, with tons of plastic waste washing up ashore on them. The message is simple, single-use plastic is slowly killing the Earth.

Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. As much as 150 million metric tons of plastics have already been dumped in the world's oceans, adversely affecting its marine ecosystem. Recently, an autopsy of a dead baby turtle revealed that it had ingested as much as 104 pieces of plastic before dying.

All this has finally made governments, corporate organizations and citizens finally sit up and take stock of the harm they are causing to the environment. Several organizations have pledged to change their practices, with the government setting goals to do their bit in saving the environment.

Building on the same lines, a collaboration between St+art India Foundation, Asian Paints, the Government of Telangana and India Design Forum, has been set up in Hyderabad, and it’s making noise for all the right reasons!

Daku’s Why

As part of the #HyderabadDesignWeek, Street Art India’s artist Daku has constructed an art installation right in the middle of the Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad.

The installation has been created with as many as 3,00,000 recycled plastic bottles and resembles a colossal Question Mark (?) in the middle of the lake. A unique thing about the installation is that it even produces its own power, as it's fitted with solar panels throughout its surface!

The creation conceptualized by Daku is on display for public viewing for a period of one month, with the solar panels ensuring that it is even visible on the lake even at night!

The Story Behind Why

Speaking on his installation, Daku said: “As an artist, this is my contribution towards changing perceptions about the use of plastic, which is one of the biggest questions today. I hope this installation will help raise more questions in people’s minds. This is my take on plastic against plastic.”

The art aims at stimulating the conversation against single-use plastics. The giant question mark aims to question corporations, citizens and civic bodies on a plethora of questions. What can citizens do? What can governments and corporations do? Where do we go from here? What is the alternative?

The installation hopes to provoke the different stakeholders to take into account the various problems associated with single-use plastics and stimulate them to look for viable alternatives. With the installation established in a strategically prominent location, it aims to spark a conversation regarding the planet and the efforts we can adopt to save it.

Public art has long been a mechanism to spread socially relevant messages in a strong, direct and easy to understand manner. It has been known to create awareness and stimulate action. With this great initiative against plastic pollution, let’s hope it motivates the viewers to change their ways and lead the fight against plastic pollution!