British artist stranded at sea after Hanjin shipping company goes bankrupt

A British absurdist artist is stuck off the coast of Japan on board a Hanjin Shipping freight ship after the company declared bankruptcy.

Rebecca Moss, 25, is aboard the vessel as part of the “23 Days at Sea” project – a residency program organized by a Vancouver art gallery that puts artists on cargo ships sailing from Vancouver to Shanghai.

Her plan while onboard the ship was to create a film based on the journey. But that changed last week when Hanjin Shipping Co. filed for bankruptcy, leaving many of its vessels stranded and unable to dock at ports for fear of creditors seizing the ships and their contents.

“For those familiar with my art practice, and with my sense of humour, this situation is oddly suited to me,” Moss said in a statement, posted to the “23 Days at Sea” Facebook page Monday.

“My proposal for this residency was to explore a mechanical system inserted into nature, which the French philosopher Henri Bergson described as comedic. Surely, we can all agree that this turn of events has enormous potential, and is strangely tailored to my interests.”

Hanjin Shipping Co., the world’s seventh-largest shipping container company, has an estimated US$14 billion in goods on dozens of ships around the world.

The company’s collapse under debts of $5.5 billion has caused havoc in global trade networks and a surge in freight rates.

Moss has been onboard the Hanjin Geneva for 21 days. The ship – which originally departed from Vancouver – was expected to dock in Shanghai on Sept. 15, but it is unclear when it will be allowed to enter the port of Shanghai.

The artist is accompanied by a small crew aboard the ship —a captain, chief engineer, a chief mate, the crew, and two passengers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The idea of Moss’ residency was to shed light on “largely invisible world” of the shipping industry and the legalities of global trade – but Moss said that project has even more meaning now.

“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,” she said in an email to Access Gallery, which organized the residency.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "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," <a href="http://accessgallery.ca/current/hanjin-in-receivership/">she said in an email to Access Gallery, which organized the residency.</a>

Despite being stuck on a freight ship in the middle of the ocean, Moss sporadically posts updates to her Instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKFLLq5gq1B/

But hope may be on the horizon for Moss and others stranded aboard Hanjin vessels. On Saturday, a Hanjin container ship stranded off the California coast for more than a week began unloading its containers after a judge protected the shipping giant from having its assets seized in the U.S.

It was one of four vessels barred from entering or leaving the Port of Long Beach after Hanjin filed for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 31 in South Korea and the U.S. on Sept. 2.

– With files from The Associated Press