DESCRIPTION:

The Electronic Pomegranate – Telecom Home Phone c1977

2018

Glass Crystal, Dichroic Lens

Installation size – L370 W370 H100mm

Glass – L230 W230 H100mm

Photographer - Russell Watson

“The root meaning of the word economy is the art of household management.”

– Kate Raworth, Global Economist

Fearful of becoming disconnected, out of touch or left behind has become a global condition that feeds the communication industry’s economy. A relic of a bygone era, the telecom home phone echoes Australia’s unresolved recycling problem. Known as the ‘Electronic Pomegranate’ of household appliances home phones from this era are all skin, no fruit and mighty time consuming to dismantle. As Australia does not have a national recycling scheme for electrical appliances, phones leach toxic chemicals into landfill, poisoning the soil and water of surrounding areas.

The Electronic Pomegranate fills a precarious position discarded in ‘no man’s land’ somewhere on the Earth’s crust as unusable waste that no one will claim. They embody the antithesis of a new economic model that has the potential to balance essential human needs working within planetary boundaries; affording an opportunity to stage a quiet revolution within Australian homes. The Electronic Pomegranate - Telecom Home Phone c1977 reminds us - “in the future nature will respond by re-appropriating our discarded waste, the bi-product of this union remains unpredictable and unknown.”