payphone toronto

This mysterious phone just popped up in Toronto

Who doesn't love an anxiety-inducing public reminder that the end of the world is nigh? 

A public payphone has popped up at the southeast corner of bustling Queen and Spadina—and it wants you to know that life on earth is fleeting and there's nothing you can do about it.  

Offering many problems and zero solutions (other than believing in Jesus), the rotary phone's actually a fake: you can't even lift it off the handle. Not very helpful during this time of crisis. 

Linguists might enjoy it, though, since the phone box also teaches you how to write "Out of time" in a bunch of languages like French, Chinese, Portuguese, and Vietnamese, since doom and gloom is universal. 

Taped to the side of the box—eureka! A sign, with solutions! Just kidding, it's a piece of paper with a picture of a dove and this illuminating message: "The world is on the verge of stupendous crisis." 

Whoever's art project this is, I need them to come forward and take accountability for worsening my climate anxiety by tenfold. 

Lead photo by

Tanya Mok


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