International Waters, 4 min 20 secs extract from 20 minute video.
In August 2016, Rebecca Moss was selected for the 23 Days at Sea artist residency programme, run by Access Gallery in Vancouver. Travelling by container ship, Moss planned to cross the Pacific Ocean and arrive in Shanghai 23 days later. However, one week into the residency, the shipping company Hanjin was declared bankrupt, meaning that the individuals and cargo were stranded at sea on a ship which was unable to pay to get into any docks. Moss, the only artist on board, two passengers, the Captain and the crew, dropped anchor 13 km from the coast of Japan, in international waters, and waited for over a fortnight for further instruction.
International Waters is a single channel video work made in response to being stuck at anchor. It premiered with the Future Generation Art Prize alongside the 57th Venice Biennale, 2017. The video tells the story of the bankruptcy from the perspective of the people on board the stationary ship, and combines interviews and news reports from this time.
