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High Seas
2022
Aluminium deep sea trawling buoy eroded to map the High Seas
25cm x 25cm x 25cm

The High Seas, also known as International Waters, is the continuous body of water beyond all national territories. It was first proposed by Hugo Grotius in 1609, but it wasn’t until 1953 when its borders were legally agreed with the Convention on the High Seas.

Covering nearly half of our planet’s surface the High Seas once formed a seemingly endless expanse, however as we edge deeper into the Anthropocene the finite borders appear increasingly fragile and the resources ever more under strain.

Formed from a deep sea trawling buoy that has spent a lifetime at sea, the industrial object becomes a globe that has been carefully cut to remove all territorial land and waters, leaving an eroded form that maps the High Seas.