A lot of times we think of art as just something pretty to look at, but great art often has a much bigger purpose. It can be used to make us think or inspire us toward some kind of action.
Canadian artist Serge Belo does just that with the works he creates. He uses his pieces to convey certain messages he wants to share with the world.
After reading some incredibly disheartening statistics about clean water around the world, Belo decided to create the “world’s largest water mosaic” to raise awareness about the global clean water crisis.
While most of us take access to water – and clean water at that – for granted, there are many people who do not have such easy access. More than 1.2 billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water.
Millions of people, children included, walk miles every day for just a little bit of water, and often that water isn’t even fit to drink. Every 20 seconds a child somewhere in the world dies because of a lack of access to safe water and sanitation.
For this project Belo collected 15,000 liters of rainwater which he then dyed various colors with vegetable dye. The different colors of the water are meant to represent the different levels of water impurities around the globe. As you can see, the water many people in the world have access to is extremely impure and unsanitary.
With the help of over 100 volunteers and over the course of 62 hours, Belo arranged 66,000 cups filled with water to create a mosaic that measured 3,600 square feet. He said he chose a time intensive process to create the work to illustrate “the daily struggle [for water] faced by millions.”
The moment the camera pans out and the finished work is complete is absolutely jaw-dropping. Click below to see it for yourself:
Belo said he chose to create an image of a baby in the womb to emphasize how essential clean water is for every person, even before birth.
His stunning work has touched millions of people around the world and inspired them to work toward getting clean water for every person.
After the project was complete the water was collected and used for sanitation and irrigation purposes, ensuring not even a drop of it was wasted.
You can join the movement and help bring clean water and hope to people around the world by supporting organizations like ONEDROP, which partnered with this project.
Were you as blown away by the finished picture as we were? So share this!