Sydney today woke up to a most spectacular boner, unusual only for the fact that everyone can enjoy experiencing it in public for once. That, and this morning’s glory comes in the form of an 18m hot pink condom sheathed over the heritage-listed Hyde Park Obelisk.
Australia’s answer to the felling of Paul McCarthy’s Paris Butt Plug marks the next chapter in the story of Australia’s complicated relationship with prophylactics and is part of a larger high-vis effort to raise awareness amongst the gay community about how they can help end the transmission of HIV in NSW by 2020.
Commissioned by ACON, the installation is the zenith of the I’M ON safe sex education campaign, which espouses the common sense, potentially life-saving measures everyone can take for safer, and ultimately sexier, times.
While Australian biotech firms like Starpharma have developed almost marker-ready antiviral compounds like VivaGel that have been shown in lab tests to inactivate 99.9% of HIV, Herpes, and other sexually transmitted viruses, rates of transmission show no signs of abating.
Earlier this year, an annual survey conducted by UNSW’s Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society determined that the rate of Sexually Transmitted Infections is still on the up down under. Supremely unchill situations like syphilis are reaching all-time highs, with a 34% increase in reported cases since 2009; gonorrhoea too has undergone a staggering 80% increase in recorded instances over the past 5 years, and 82,357 new diagnoses of chlamydia were reported in 2013 alone. Hence the need for these kind of campaigns for all Australians.
Plus, it makes for a stellar dick pic.
Sculpture by The Sea finishes on Sunday; you can see Sculpture by The D until next Wednesday.
Photos by Mark Clinton, supplied
