London design studio VATRAA stacked thousands of water bottles to create its Plastic Monument installation, which is designed to highlight the world’s pollution problem.
The artwork echoes the trilithons of England’s 5,000-year-old Stonehenge, which are made from pairs of upright stones supporting a lintel. It’s designed as a reinterpretation of the prehistoric stone circle, albeit made from a far more problematic material.
VATRAA used 16,000 plastic bottles for the installation, wrapping them in a metal mesh to add form and echo the craggy outline of the original, ancient trilithons. The piece – which was the winning entry in a National Geographic competition to raise awareness of plastic pollution – stands 22-ft high, which is as tall as Stonehenge’s highest point.
The installation will remain in Milan for the next 12 months; however, VATRAA is hopeful it could tour the world after – and encourage more people to confront the ocean of plastic waste humans are leaving behind as their legacy.