PEAKS is a cumulative video project and performance installation in which Sarah Cameron Sunde and Joshua Dumas re-use the detritus of the built environment to construct brief cinematic moments of iconic vastness. Everyday materials (cork, tin foil, coffee grinds, paper) are sometimes unrecognizable in their transformation into surreal landscape. Peaks investigates our relationship to scale, to awe and beauty, to human ecological impact, and explores cycles of transformation, elevation and corruption.
16 PEAKS was developed as part of Sarah’s LMCC Workspace Residency, 2016-17. The next 20 “peaks” were developed in early 2018 in anticipation of a Princess Grace Work-in-Progress Residency Award to develop the large-scale video installation punctuated with live performance at Baryshnikov Arts Center in May, 2018. 36 PEAKS had two days of 6 hour performances (3 two-hour cycles each day) in the John Cage and Merce Cunningham Studio on May 23 and 24, 2018.
Feelings of both being a part of something and apart from everything. Helplessness and relief. Calmness and anxiety. – Jake Manabat
I didn’t leave. I stayed for the whole thing, simultaneously soothed and intrigued by the quiet, cumulative effect of the space and movement. Though I never looked at the time, I know that my pleasure in the experience heightened as it moved into the second hour. – Mina Samuels for MEDIUM
We anticipate developing the next 10-12 video “peaks” during 2023 and are looking for the next opportunity to bring the performance element to life.