Endurance Protocols: 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea

Endurance Protocls: 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea

The exhibition features video and photographic work from the nine performances of 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea, which took place around the world between 2013 and 2022.

In the work, 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 local community is involved in all aspects of creating the work. 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.

Each work in the 36.5 series consists of a live performance, event, a time-lapse video, varied ephemera from that specific coastal location, and a long-form cinematic video artwork that is the same length as the performance (12-13 hours). The performance is filmed from multiple perspectives, live-streamed around the world and then edited quickly into its durational form which is then translated into site-specific multi-channel video installations that can be shown in galleries, museums, and projected onto architecture in outdoor spaces.

List of works:

Initial Performance Works:

36.5 / Bass Harbor, Maine, 2013
36.5 / Akumal Bay, Mexico, 2014
36.5 / San Francisco Bay, California, 2014

Full Works (Performance and Durational Video Artworks):

36.5 / North Sea, Netherlands, 2015
36.5 / Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, 2017
36.5 / Bay of All Saints, Brazil, 2019
36.5 / Bodo Inlet, Kenya, 2019
36.5 / Te Manukanukatanga ō Hoturoa, Aotearoa-New Zealand, 2022
36.5 / New York Estuary, New York City, 2022

Brought to you by The NYU Center for the Humanities and Dean for Humanities in collaboration with the Institute of Performing Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, FAS Environmental Studies, FAS Creative Writing, Some Contemporary Poetries, XE: Experimental Humanities, The Grey Art Museum, Gallatin Galleries, Expository Writing Program (EWP) and the Department of Comparative Literature.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher NYU Center for the Humanities