Unique piece
Jemea
Container ship
The only container ship in the fleet. Flying the Panama flag, its black hull carries a cargo of containers weathered one by one, dented, faded, rusted, stacked as on the transoceanic lines. Around 450 hours of work.
Specifications
- Type
- Container ship
- Dimensions
- L 1,96 m × l 0,28 m × H 0,55 m
- Materials
- Wood, resin-charged plaster, brass
- Patina
- Sponge-applied patina, every container treated individually
- Origin of the form
- After a plan from the Tunisian company COTUNAV, modified
- Created
- 2020
- Work
- 450 hours
- Edition
- Signed, one of a kind
The story of the work
A cargo weathered piece by piece
With Jemea, Olivier Maynard takes on a challenge of patience: each container in the cargo is treated individually, faded colours, rust streaks, dented walls, before being stacked on deck. Here the patina is worked with a sponge, a technique that gives the metal its irregular, living grain.
Built with a mixed technique, wood, resin-charged plaster and brass, from a modified COTUNAV plan, Jemea required around 450 hours of work.
It is also the most contemporary work of the group. The container ship is a subject almost absent from maritime art, although it has become the very shape of world trade, the one photographed by Allan Sekula or Edward Burtynsky. Jemea brings it back to eye level.