[1] The work combines real and fictional elements: the speakers play both local weather forecasts and dispatches from imaginary guards (whose voices were provided by IMA security staff),[2] while the monitors display footage from the security camera trained on the viewer as well as simulated imagery from within the ship.

It is intended as a commentary on global warming, with the refugees on board the ship driven out by "rising sea levels and the ecological impact of climate change".

[1] Although the original plan was to use a pre-existing vessel, in the end Mäkipää opted to "construct a floating structure that resembles a ship"[3] with the assistance of the local engineering company Silver Creek Engineering, Inc. A steel frame gives the ship the necessary strength to withstand waves, wind, snow and ice.

[5] The museum's director at the time, Maxwell Anderson, has theorized that, in spite of the effort that went into constructing it, the ship will be slowly demolished by its aquatic environment, and he sees no reason to stop it: "We can imagine leaving Tea’s piece to become a shipwreck.

Much of her work is devoted to highlighting "environmental change and the role of humans in the destruction and possible preservation of the planet.