Mobile phones star in art gallery

Visitors can add their own images to the exhibition

Mobile phones are to get a starring role in a new art exhibition.

Arena Gallery will be showcasing the work of 11 artists who have explored the popular communications technology in their art.

From lo-fi to cutting-edge, the work also looks at the personal, social, and political effects of the mobile phone.

The exhibition, which explores the phone's use as a camera and a lifeline, runs from Saturday until 3 September at Duke Street in Liverpool.

'Like an epidemic'

Curator of the exhibition, Sean Hawkridge, said: "The show includes artist-made wallpapers downloadable in the gallery, re-arranged classic ring tones and the opportunity to chat via text with an artist in a hut in Sweden."

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to use mobile cameras to add to the images on show, while other artists will feature past communication inventions and our paranoia about how it all works.

Chairman of the Liverpool Culture Company board Professor Drummond Bone said: "Mobile communications is almost like an epidemic which has gripped our lives, so sometimes it's good to take a step back and view it from a different angle."