image by Jeremy Dennis
Spanning Six Continents and Created in Response to Hurricane Sandy, Participatory Environmental Artwork Features Artist Standing in Ocean Water For Full Tidal Cycle, 7:27 AM – 8:06 PM
Day-Long Event Includes Simultaneous Performances in Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, the Netherlands, and Aotearoa-New Zealand – All Layered Into Livestream & Broadcast Across New York City and Beyond.
36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013-present), a series of nine site-specific participatory performances and video artworks by interdisciplinary artist Sarah Cameron Sunde, will present its final work, 36.5 / New York Estuary, on Wednesday, September 14 in New York City. Initially created in response to Hurricane Sandy’s impact on New York City, this environmental artwork features Sunde standing in ocean water for a full tidal cycle, generally 12–13 hours, as water slowly engulfs her body and then recedes. 36.5 engages the public, who participate in all aspects of making the live work, in personal, local, and global conversations around sea-level rise and deep time. Spanning nine years and six continents, 36.5, which is filmed in real-time from multiple perspectives and livestreamed, is a radical call to reconsider our relationship to water as individuals, as communities, and as a species.
The ninth and final artwork, 36.5 / New York Estuary, will take place on September 14, 2022, at so called Hallet’s Cove, located at 31-10 Vernon Blvd, where Astoria meets Long Island City on the East River, in Queens. It will begin at 7:27 AM and conclude at 8:06 PM. Everyone is welcome to join Sunde standing in the water at the Cove or mark the passing hours from the shore. Viewing stations will also be set up on the northern tip of Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side.
Sunde, who is based in Harlem, sees the 36.5 / New York Estuary as a homecoming. As part of building the final artwork, she co-founded Kin to the Cove, a site-specific community-powered environmental public art process that connects local residents to the cove and the water that surrounds New York City. The group meets regularly at the performance site, building kinship with the water and wildlife, imagining a healthier future, and committing to future stewardship of this site.
In addition to her hyper-local socially engaged process in New York, Sunde has assembled a large group of international partners over the project’s nine years. On September 14, as the final performance takes place in New York, collaborators from Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, the Netherlands, and Aotearoa-New Zealand will join Sunde remotely in performances in their local communities. These international performances will be integrated into the livestream, which is produced by Theater Mitu and available online at www.36pt5.org.
The livestream of 36.5 / New York Estuary will also be broadcast at venues across New York City and beyond, including Arts Brookfield at Brookfield Place and Manhattan West, Riverside Park Conservancy, Gallatin Galleries at NYU, Mercury Store in Brooklyn, RISE in Far Rockaway Queens, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island, Flux Projects in Atlanta, and Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, among others.
36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea began in 2013 as a poetic response to Hurricane Sandy hitting New York City. Sunde walked into Bass Harbor, Maine, at low tide, faced the sea, and stayed there for 12 hours and 48 minutes, as ocean water slowly engulfed her body and then receded. Since then, 36.5 has grown into a large-scale series of site-specific works involving hundreds of people in communities around the world. In its current form, each work in the 36.5 series consists of a live performance event, a time-lapse video, a 12–13-hour cinematic video artwork shown in multi-channel installations, varied documentation, along with ephemera from each different coastal location.
“36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea is my attempt to translate the seemingly abstract idea of climate change and sea-level rise into our bodies,” says interdisciplinary artist Sarah Cameron Sunde. “It’s also about Time on many different scales: a durational work that unfolds over thirteen hours that has taken nearly a decade to complete. The tide tracks time on my body viscerally, which functions as a metaphor for the changing environment. The water is my collaborator, and the risks are real. I stay present in the sensations, attempt to embody the ocean, and find a way to endure the struggle while de centering my human experience and acknowledging potential futures. The public is invited to stand in the water with me for however long they like and to participate in a series of artistic interventions from the shore, creating a human clock that communicates to me each hour as it passes.”
In preparation for each artwork, Sunde has traveled to a location threatened by sea-level rise and worked with a local team over several weeks to create a site-specific participatory event. On the day of the performance, the public comes and goes, sometimes standing with Sunde in the ocean water, sometimes witnessing from the shore for many hours. In collaboration with a local cinematographer and film crew, the entire event is filmed from multiple perspectives and livestreamed. The footage is then edited into a durational video the same length as the performance and screened on location within ten days of the performance.
Una Chaudhuri, Dean for the Humanities, New York University, commented, “The surface simplicity of the work belies the complexity of its theoretical, aesthetic, and political potential. 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea offers an opportunity to approach questions of art, performance, and of the human place in nature from a variety of discursive and disciplinary perspectives: feminism, eco-theory, theories of space, embodiment, and affect, questions of resilience, histories of performance, art history, as well as questions of transnational art activism and modes of fostering eco-spheric consciousness.”
Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of The Netherlands, commented, “36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea is our best mirror, showing our increasing vulnerability in the face of climate change and showing us our best opportunity to act, mitigate and adapt: we can only change course if we take this challenge head-on, embrace its complexity and integrate our collective actions, by innovation, scaled up actions, and leaving no one behind.”
Adriana Campelo, former Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Salvador, Brazil, commented, “Sunde’s performance in Salvador was a wonderful experience of contemporary art with the ability to impact many people. It brought together beauty and sensibility. It was a one-of-a-kind manifesto for global issues on climate change, social inequality, and freedom of expression. The durational performance is not a one-off art intervention but a long-lasting experience that keeps reverberating through our multiple senses.”
Since 2013, eight artworks in the 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea series have been created with communities around the world including Bass Harbor, Maine in 2013; Akumal Bay, Mexico and San Francisco Bay, California in 2014; North Sea, The Netherlands in 2015; Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh in 2017; the Bay of All Saints, Brazil and Bodo Inlet, Kenya in 2019; and, most recently, Te Manukanukatanga ō Hoturoa in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa-New Zealand, on May 16, 2022.
A series of events presented in partnership with Arts Brookfield, The Climate Museum, Ma’s House, The Watermill Center, New York University, Riverside Conservancy, and Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor coincides with the final artwork.
To date, 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea has engaged over 5,000 people in the live event and over 12,000 people with the video works. More than 500 people have stood in the water with Sunde and/or participated in the performance interventions on the shore. Over 30 partner organizations and over 40 core collaborators have contributed to the creation of the series.
Schedule of 36.5 Related Events
August 13 from 8:08am-8:31pm
36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea – Community Day
Waterfront Plaza, Brookfield Place
Arts Brookfield hosts a full day of screening Sarah Cameron Sunde’s durational video works along with activities and participatory walks for all ages.
August 21 from 8am-4pm
Site-Specific Collaboration with Ma’s House and The Watermill Center
Ma’s House, 159 Old Point Road, Southampton, NY
Sunde prepares for her stand in New York waters by connecting with local Shinnecock artists and activists whose ancestors have been stewarding this land and water for over 10,000 years. Together, they will journey from Shinnecock to a nearby beach and stand in the water for half of the tidal cycle.
August 24 from 3-5pm and 6-8pm
Public Engagement Events
Riverside Park Conservancy – south and north sides
Sunde will lead community conversations about 36.5 followed by a guided walk by the water’s edge and a listening circle, inviting participants to reconsider their relationship with the sea.
September 6 at 6:30pm
Climate Lab: Sarah Cameron Sunde and 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY
New York Historical Society hosts a conversation between Sunde and Russell Shorto, executive director of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Institute for New York City History, Politics, and Community Activism. They’ll discuss creating the 36.5, public art, and sea-level rise in New York City.
October 6 at 6pm
Standing with the Sea: Reflections on Sarah Cameron Sunde’s 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea
Gardner Commons, Shimkin Hall, NYU
In an event hosted and organized by Una Chaudhuri (Dean for the Humanities, New York University), professors and scholars discuss 36.5 / New York Estuary followed by a screening of the new durational video artwork, projected on the outside Eastern wall of Bobst Library.
Planning for additional events is ongoing. Please visit www.36pt5.org for the most up-to-date information and schedule of events.
About Sarah Cameron Sunde
Sarah Cameron Sunde (b. 1977) is an interdisciplinary artist and director working at the intersection of performance, video, and public art, investigating scale and duration in relation to the human body, the environment, and deep time. She was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013 – present) was the subject of a special section in Resilience: a Journal of the Environmental Humanities that was curated by Una Chaudhuri. Other honors include two MAP Fund Grants, NYSCA, Watermill Center Residency, Baryshnikov Residency, Princess Grace Award, and ongoing support from Invoking the Pause. Solo exhibitions include The Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, GA), Gallatin Galleries (New York, NY), Oude Kerk (Amsterdam), and Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery (Tamaki Makaurau-Auckland). She holds a B.A. in Theater from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from The City College of New York.
36.5 / New York Estuary will take place at the Cove where Long Island City meets Astoria, in what’s currently known as Queens, on the stolen ancestral homeland of the Canarsie, Wappinger, Munsee Lenape, and Matinecock people, who have stewarded and continue to steward this land and water for over 10,000 years. 36.5 acknowledges the painful histories of white-settler colonialism at this site and around the world and works with gratitude and respect for all Indigenous Elders: past, present, and future.
Credits
36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea is produced by Works on Water and made possible through the many global collaborations and partnerships including The Climate Museum, Theater Mitu, New York University, NYU Skirball, Socrates Sculpture Park, Arts Brookfield, Riverside Park Conservancy, Newhouse Center of Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, RISE, Ma’s House, and Watermill Center.
