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Sat 17 Sep 2016 12:59AM
For immediate release | September 17, 2016:
We are happy to announce that Rebecca Moss (and her fellow passengers) disembarked in Tokyo today, after 25 days aboard the Hanjin Geneva. The situation of the Hanjin collapse is complex, has caused turmoil to many, and is still unfolding. We now understand that the crew of the Geneva will not be facing the loss of their jobs because they (as well as many others working Hanjin vessels) are employed by the German operators NSB Reederei.
We are grateful to the NSB, the Captain of the Hanjin Geneva, the British Consular Service, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for their support and communication throughout this time. Kira Simon-Kennedy, director of China Residencies, also deserves special mention for her assistance. Rebecca will spend the next few days connecting with our art community in Tokyo, before she flies back to London, UK.
For immediate release | August 31, 2016:
As many in the global community will already be aware, Hanjin Shipping Company, carrier of the local and international artists participating in Access Gallery's Twenty-Three Days at Sea travelling artist residency and one of the world’s largest shipping lines, has filed for receivership. The company’s assets are frozen, and ports have blocked access to its fleet of 150 container ships. This news follows a persistent decline in worldwide trade, as global shipping firms have been swamped by overcapacity and sluggish demand.
Rebecca Moss, Twenty-Three Days at Sea’s fifth resident artist, is currently aboard the Hanjin Geneva, several hundred kilometres off the shores of Japan. The vessel has been denied entry into their intended destination at the port of Shanghai. We are in close communication with Moss; she and the crew are safe, and the captain is currently working to secure a port for their vessel. We are monitoring the situation closely. Our supporting partners, China Residencies, will draw on their formidable connections in artistic communities across Asia to ensure Moss is supported in whatever country her vessel enables her to disembark.
The immensity of this news, as devastating as it is for the hundreds of workers affected, underscores many of the residency’s core concerns, indicating both the precarity of globalized capitalism and our dependence upon systems that we neither see nor understand. It also underscores the considerable role that contemporary artists may play in bringing such situations to our attention in provocative and transformative ways.
Rebecca Moss’ performative and video-based practice draws on Henri Bergson’s theories of the comedic, wherein comedy is understood to arise in moments of friction between a mechanical system and the nature into which it is inserted. In an email written to Access’ Director/Curator on Wednesday, Moss stated, “I can't begin to describe how it feels to look out the window and see a huge stack of containers, surrounded by miles of ocean in every direction, and realize they don't actually have a destination. All the labour, the scale of this operation, just feels even more completely insane now.”
Select coverage of the Hanjin collapse:
Lodestar: A timeline of the Hanjin collapse
World Economic Forum: What does Hanjin’s collapse mean for world shipping?
The Korea Herald: 30% of Hanjin ships unloaded
Bloomberg: Hanjin Reduces Fleet by Returning Chartered Carriers to Owners
Coverage of Rebecca Moss aboard the Hanjin Geneva:
Vancouver Sun : British Artist on Vancouver Residency Stranded on Hanjin Freighter
Vancouver Sun : Art Seen Stranded at Sea British Artist Sees her Surroundings with New Eyes
Artnet: Artist stranded at sea during shipping container residency
Canadian Art : International Attention Grows Over Artist Stranded at Sea
Hyperallergic : Artist-in-Residence Stranded at Sea on Bankrupt Container Ship
E-Flux : Bankrupt Container Ship Strands Artist on Residency in Pacific Ocean
Wall Street Journal:Hanjin's Stranded Ships Contain One Absurdist Filmmaker
Metro UK: British Artist Stranded at Sea Because Shipping Company Went Bust
Boing Boing: Artist in Residence Stuck on Bankrupt Container Ship that No Port Will Accept
Daily Dot: Artist's Residency Ends With Her Stranded in Middle of Ocean
The Province: British Artist on Vancouver Residency Stranded on Hanjin Freighter
Rosenheim24.de: Künstlerin sitzt auf Frachter vor Japans Küste fest
The Paris Review: It's a Beautiful Day to Be Stuck on a Container Ship, and Other News
The Huffington Post Korea: 예술가 지원 사업으로 배를 타게 됐다. 그런데... 그게 한진해운 배였다
Roundhouse Radio: Evenings with Kirk Lapointe
Dazed: A British artist is stranded on a boat in the open Pacific
CNN: Artist stuck aboard 'ghost ship' in Pacific after cargo firm goes bust
BBC: How Hanjin's collapse left a British artist stranded at sea
The Guardian: Waterworld: container shipper's collapse leaves absurdist British artist all at sea
CBC Arts: a young artist is stuck at sea, and it might be the best thing that's ever happened to her
Vancouver Sun: Stranded British artist on Hanjin ship docks in Tokyo
Wall Street Journal: Stranded artist ends her adventure on Hanjin ship
CBC Arts: Dry land, at last! Artist arrives in Tokyo after weeks stuck at sea
Artnet: After 25 days at sea, artist resident on shipping container is back in Tokyo
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Twenty-Three Days at Sea: A Travelling Artist Residency is produced by Access Gallery in partnership with the Burrard Arts Foundation and the Contemporary Art Gallery. Partial sponsorship of the sea voyages is graciously offered by Reederei NSB, assistance in Asia by China Residencies and Art Contraste, and at the Port of Vancouver by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Access is grateful for the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia government through the BC Arts Council and BC Gaming, the City of Vancouver, and our donors, sponsors, members and volunteers.