What The Water Said is literally inscribed on the strips of unexposed celluloid that Gatten cast into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. Encased in crab traps, the fragmented filmstrips harbour mystical messages from the underwater world, a source of seemingly never-ending fascination. The sea, its salt, sand and rocks, and its gnawing creatures have created the film’s inimitable textured patterns and sounds, while passages from Western literature’s greatest sea odysseys - from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe to Moby Dick - remind us of the sea’s singular place in our imagination.

Andréa Picard