Artist Hangs Fake iPhones to Protest Foxxcon Suicides

Street art protesting suicides at electronics plant in China. @Xylo

Artist Xylo planted these fake iPhones to protest the working conditions at Foxconn, where electronics giants including Apple make their gadgets.

Defined by the artist as “street protest art about the iPhone prison death camps,” the outcry iPhones are made from a fine cement mixture, painted by hand and currently hanging around London.

@Xylo

In an interview with blog Hyperallergenic, here’s what Xylo had to say about it.

Q: Why are you concerned about the death of electronic workers?
Xylo: When I saw the news reports about this wave of suicides I felt very disturbed about the militaristic prison camp type conditions and abuse these workers have to endure. It feels like a hidden dystopian nightmare has been created that contrasts sharply with the affluent consumers I see every day in London staring vacantly into their phone screens, seemingly oblivious to the suffering embodied in the devices they have increasingly become slavish to.

Shortly after this, I saw a much greater amount of news coverage of people queuing overnight to buy the latest versions of these items… and repeatedly kissing the box that contained the phone in a triumphalist act of devotion. I was shocked by the skewed sense of priorities…and felt a strong sense of injustice that made me decide to attempt to redress the balance in whatever small way I could.

This kind of street art (it takes a hipster to catch the attention of one?) may be more arresting to iPhone users than a traditional standing-around-with-posters protest, like the kind held outside San Francisco’s Apple store last month over the same labor issue.

“I’d hope they will make some of them consider the choices they make regarding the social and environmental implications of all the products they use, whether electronic or not,” Xylo said.

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