Site Searching
36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013–present) is a series of nine site-specific participatory performances and video artworks, taking place in nine different bodies of water around the world. In each, I stand in a tidal area for a full tidal cycle as water slowly engulfs my body and then recedes. The public participates in all aspects of making the work. Each work in the series consists of a live performance event, a long-form cinematic video work, and varied ephemera. The project examines the temporary nature of all things and our contemporary relationship with water in urban environments—as individuals, as communities, and as a species.
I envision the culminating work in the series, originally scheduled to take place this year in New York City, as a homecoming. After traveling to bodies of water and working with people around the world, I wanted to bring new knowledge back home to New York to take a critical look at where we stand eight years after Hurricane Katrina, re-igniting the conversation around extreme weather events, climate change, and sea-level rise.
My primary focus during my Works on Water / Underwater New York Residency on Governors Island, was to find the right site to do the work. Within 520 miles of coastline, I needed to find: relatively calm waters; a site that was inundated during Hurricane Sandy and vulnerable to sea-level rise in the future; easy access to the water with space for an audience to gather and hang out; a community that will be open to engaging with the art and potential for fruitful partnerships; clean water, not too close to a CSO (Combined Sewage Overflow) outfall; and a point of view that includes our iconic city, where people are unprepared for the water to rise.
I took a series of trips around New York Harbor, evaluating sites with the above criteria in mind. Someone always accompanied me, and the next day I would record the journey in two ways: by drawing charcoal lines representing geographic movement along the water's edge and a red pastel to mark the possible locations, and by a written description of what happened. My practice is rooted in performance, and I pay close attention to how bodies move through space. These drawings are maps for experiencing our waterways and a practical tool for documenting my process.
36.5 / Hallet's Cove, New York City, originally scheduled for September 5, 2020 in collaboration with Socrates Sculpture Park, Works on Water, LMCC, and NYU, will take place in 2021.
Body of Water
Hallet's Cove, Jamaica Bay, East River, Hudson River, Buttermilk Channel
About the Artist
Sarah Cameron Sunde is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and director working at the intersection of performance, video, and public art. Her work investigates scale and duration in relationship to the human body, our environment, and deep time. It has been seen/experienced in venues around New York, U.S. and presented internationally in Norway, Netherlands, Bangladesh, China, Uganda, Iraqi Kurdistan, Brazil, Kenya, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Residencies include: LMCC Workspace, Watermill Center, Baryshnikov Art Center. Honors include: MAP Fund, Princess Grace Foundation, Creative Climate Award. She is a co-founder of Works on Water. BA in Theater (UCLA); MFA in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice (The City College of New York, CUNY). www.36pt5.org
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Location scouting for the NYC work. It will be the final one in my series, 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea. Biking for the first time in a long while, I ride slowly down to 102nd to meet Mary who is making this awesome map for us to track the 36.5 site search online. We cross the bridge to Randall’s Island and head north on the west side, up around to an inlet with restored marshland. In the water, we find a small talisman shaped like a crutch, also some pots. Later we learn the crutch symbolizes healing.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Peter, Elizabeth, and I explore Governors Island. Or let’s call it Pagganuck, since that is the Lenape name. Peter leads us around, because he knows the island like the back of his hand. He has many stories to tell, and I want to hear them all but the wind is blowing in my face. Buttermilk Channel Beach seems like it actually might be possible—if I could convince the Trust for Governors Island, but that seems unlikely.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Hunters Point South. From Governors Island, I take the ferry to Lower Manhattan and walk to Pier 11 to take another ferry up the East River. We stop in Dumbo, South Williamsburg, North Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and then Hunters Point South in Long Island City, Queens. The shoreline looks so different! Remember Dumbo in the year 2000? I do. I realize the last time I was at Hunters Point South was when Marie Lorenz brought me and Kara here as part of her Tide & Current Taxi trip in 2015. This is where we went for a swim, and that has been my NYC test shot ever since.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Site searching on Edgar’s birthday. He is 45. Where does the time go? We do a big bike trip at the water’s edge to celebrate (and be productive)! We head all the way downtown along the Hudson River to the Brookfield Place Ferry, then over the water to Hoboken. On the New Jersey side, we eventually find the waterfront and make our way to Jersey City, then towards Liberty State Park for a whole new view of the statue. Lots of geese are hanging out in a little inlet with a great view of downtown NYC. This might actually work.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
James and I meet in Battery Park. After a studio visit on the island, we head back across the water, first to Lower Manhattan, then to Dumbo. It is sweltering hot. We walk the entirety of Brooklyn Bridge Park, first north then south, with many stops along the way. Many people are gathered at the water’s edge with bare feet. A sign says “No Swimming, No Wading,” but I walk in the water anyway.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Jamaica Bay with Maya; Diana joins us for the first leg. After a lovely lunch on Maya’s houseboat, we head over to Broad Channel and check out Sunset Cove. It’s gorgeous and the city is in the far distance, but there is no way to access the water right there. We head further north to the spot where people fish and BBQ. There is fruit placed mysteriously on the shore, lined up neatly like an offering to the water gods. Later we explore the bay by boat. There are sand bars the size of football fields that emerge during low tide. I jump off the boat onto a sandbar, but a seal pops up on the other side. She looks playful, but this is clearly not where I should be.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Trip number seven around Upper Manhattan as the sun starts to set. This is close to home, and it would be nice. We ride out and down towards the Harlem River on the East Side, then up to Peter Sharp Boat House. It’s a beautiful hidden gem. But the view and frame of the shot doesn’t work for the project. We head north on some busy streets with cars buzzing past us until finally we reach the swampy tidal bay of Inwood Park. Is it possible to walk into this body of water?