SWEDISH UNDERWATER ART EXHIBIT UNDERSCORES RISING WATER LEVELS

Defiantly flipping off both middle fingers, a mermaid made of recovered metal scraps with hair fashioned out of red plastic tubes was lowered into murky green waters outside Stockholm on a recent windy spring day.

- (By Nioucha Zakavati and Johannes Ledel/AFP)

Made to look like "The Little Mermaid" from Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale with a nod to Disney's 1989 adaptation, the sculpture is joined underwater by artworks inspired by famous landmarks from around the world, including the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer and the Statue of Liberty in New York.

The are all part of the "Atlantis" art project, which aims to "create an underwater city of the world's most famous buildings", as per project manager Fredrik Johansson.

All the sculptures are made from scrap recovered by his organization Hands 2 Oceans, which picks up garbage dropped in the waters around Stockholm.