12
Open Sea
Floating Rock Drifts on the Open Sea 2000
“Beyond Twelve Nautical Miles-Floating Rock Drifts on the Open Sea”
This artwork is an artificial rock, a reproduction in stainless steel of a rock copied in a valley in the suburbs of Beijing. It was created with sheets of stainless steel, emptied, and then sealed. So it is designed either to float on the water or to be hung.
As a piece conceived as an experiment of public art, I decided to locate my stone in public waters. Apart from public waters, the South and North Pole, shores and coastal waters all the other places on Earth belong to different countries.
Even if according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, beyond twelve nautical miles from land, the ocean and the islands are considered public waters (international waters), belonging to no one, many countries are still debating about this point.
“Beyond Twelve Nautical Miles-Floating Rock Drifts on the Open Sea” will be thrown into the open sea, and the artwork will float forever without knowing its direction. Of course, this will need also the help of nature (waves). Firstly I will need to choose the place where to throw my rock, it would be better if the place faces south- east (the farthest island from the coast); then I will hire a fishing boat, drive for 12 nautical miles and then after entering the international waters, throw the rock into the sea. This work will float forever, will travel across the Yellow Sea, The Eastern Sea, and will enter the Pacific Ocean. I hope it will float forever across the open sea since the open sea is the home of my work.
In order to allow people who may chance upon the rock to put it again into the open sea and thus continue its journey, I inscribed this following message in five languages -Chinese, English, Japanese, North Korean, and Spanish- on the surface of the rock:
Dear friend, this is a piece of art especially conceived to be put into the open sea. If you are lucky enough to pick it up, please put it back into the sea. The artist will deeply thank you for your actions from a faraway place. The artist, Zhan Wang.
Address: Chaoyang District Beijing, Yu Huili No. 3, zip code: 100101, China
FAX: 86 10 64925619 TEL: 86 10 64925628
Email：zhanwang@intercom.com.cn
May 2, 2000