36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea

36.5 / a durational performance with the sea

36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea is a time-based series of performances and video art works spanning seven years and six continents: New York-based artist Sarah Cameron Sunde stands in a tidal area for a full cycle, usually 12-13 hours, as water engulfs her body and then reveals it again. The public is invited to participate by joining Sarah in the water and by marking the passing hours from the shore. The project began in Maine 2013 as a response to Hurricane Sandy’s impact on New York City and the parallel that Sunde saw in the the struggle for artists to survive on a daily basis in the city and the struggle of humanity to survive in the face of sea-level rise. The project was then developed in Mexico and San Francisco in 2014 and launched on a global scale in The Netherlands in 2015. The fifth work in the series was made in Bangladesh in 2017 and the sixth work was made in Brazil in 2019. The performance is filmed from multiple perspectives, live-streamed around the world and then translated into multi-channel video installations that is shown in gallery settings and outdoor in public art spaces, communicating with a global audience.

New 36.5 works are in development with partners in Kenya in Oct/Nov 2019, New Zealand in Feb/March 2020, and a culminating work will be created in New York City in September 2020 with hundreds of people around the city and the world, all standing in water on the same day.