Sarah Cameron Sunde

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Sarah Cameron Sunde
Speaking at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2023
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArtist

Sarah Cameron Sunde is an American, New York based interdisciplinary environmental artist.[1] For the first 10 years of her career (1999-2010), she identified primarily as a theater maker and director, and was known internationally as the American-English translator and director of Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse's works.[2] Though she continued theater making/directing through 2017, In 2010, her work shifted primarily to that of a time-based visual artist working at the intersection of public, performance, and video art, which she continues today. At this intersection, Sunde works site-specifically with duration and scale to examine the human relationship to deep time, the more-than-human world, and the environment.

Her most notable work to date is 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea, a public, video, and performance artwork made in collaboration with water and communities across the world.[3] 36.5 was made over nine years and across six continents (2013-2022).[4] The durational video work created from these performances will continue to be worked with, explored, and exhibited through the foreseeable future.

Career[edit]

36.5 / A Durational Performance With the Sea[edit]

While visiting Maine in 2013, Sunde conceived a performance piece where she would stand at the edge of a body of water from low tide to low tide, allowing the water to rise from her feet, engulf her body, then fall back down again as a metaphor for sea level rise on a human being.[5] Each of the nine iterations are made up of three main components: A physical, live performance, a livestreamed performance, and a timelapse and durational video work created from each performance.

Between 2013 and 2022 she staged nine performances on six different continents (Maine, Mexico, San Francisco, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Aotearoa-New Zealand).[6] Locations were chosen based on how affected they have been by sea level rise. The performances were a reaction to Hurricane Sandy, and the final performance occurred on September 14, 2022 in the New York Estuary in New York City (Astoria, Queens)[7] At each location she invites community members to join her in the performance as well as in "environmental initiatives".[5]

Notable partners and exhibitions of the work include: the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA (2020), Gallatin Galleries, New York, NY (2020), Te Uru Gallery, Aotearoa-NZ (2020), Fort Jesus Museum and Cheche Gallery, Mombasa and Nairobi, Kenya (2019), Museu de Arte Moderna, MUSAS, Salvador, Brazil (2019), Britto Arts Space, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2017), and De Appel, and Oude Kerk, Netherlands (2015).

Works on Water[edit]

In 2017, Sunde instigated and co-founded Works on Water,[8] a nonprofit, triennial, and experimental cultural organization that supports a community of artists working on, in, and with bodies of water. Works on Water's goal is to create a space for visual artists, theater-makers, scientists, and urban planners to collaborate across sectors and think in multidisciplinary ways about water.[9]

Theatrical work: directing, translating, producing[edit]

From 2004-2014, Sunde directed and translated US debut productions[10] of the work of 2023 Literature Nobel Prize Laureate[11] Norwegian poet and playwright, Jon Fosse.

In 2004, Sunde translated and directed Fosse's Night Sings Its Songs[12] at the Culture Project in New York City, and the following year she directed The Asphalt Kiss by Nelson Rodrigues at the Off-Broadway 59E59 Theaters.[13] She directed her translation of Fosse's deathvariations[14] in 2006 and SaKaLa[15] in 2008.[16] In 2009, she directed the world premiere of Jessica Dickey's The Amish Project and at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.[17] In 2010, Sunde co-directed the world premiere of Marielle Heller's The Diary of a Teenage Girl at 3LD Art & Technology Center.[18] She directed her translations of Fosse's A Summer Day[19][20] at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2012 and Dream of Autumn[21] at Quantum Theater in Pittsburgh in 2013.

Sunde is a co-founder of both Oslo Elsewhere[22] and the Translation Think Tank.[23] She also served as the Deputy Artistic Director of New Georges from 2001-2017.

Awards[edit]

  • Guggenheim Fellow (2021)[24]
  • MAP Fund (2021,[25] 2019)[26]
  • New York State Council on the Arts (2021)
  • Robert & Gloria Hausman Theater Award, Princess Grace Fellowship in Directing (2005)[27]
  • Artist Award, American Scandinavian Society (2005)[28]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Sarah Cameron Sunde | Environmental and Time-based Artist and Director". Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  2. ^ "Sarah Cameron Sunde – About The Artist". The Gallatin Galleries. August 19, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  3. ^ Miller, Nicole (March 30, 2019). "Sarah Cameron Sunde's Immersive Performances". Hyperallergic. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  4. ^ "36.5 | about". Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "This artist gets up to her neck in water to spread awareness of climate change". NPR.org. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  6. ^ "36.5 | performance". Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  7. ^ Misdary, Rosemary (September 14, 2022). "To confront rising sea levels, an NYC artist invites you to stand in the East River for 12 hours". Gothamist. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  8. ^ "Works on Water".
  9. ^ Sunde, Sarah Cameron (January 1, 2018). "Environmental Art for the 21st Century". Works on Water Inaugural Triennial Catalogue.
  10. ^ Barker, Jeremy M. (November 1, 2012). "Hard Moments Crashing". American Theatre. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  11. ^ Marshall, Alex; Alter, Alexandra (October 5, 2023). "Jon Fosse, Norwegian Author, Receives the Nobel Prize in Literature". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  12. ^ Gates, Anita (June 17, 2004). "Theater in Review; A Man, a Woman and a Baby, Locked in a Northern Nightmare". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  13. ^ Jones, Kenneth (October 7, 2005). "NYC Premiere of Asphalt Kiss Among Celebration of Works by Brazil's Nelson Rodrigues, Oct. 7 - Playbill.com". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  14. ^ Gates, Anita (August 21, 2006). "Young Suicide in the Eyes of Norwegian Playwrights Old and New, Ibsen and Non-Ibsen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  15. ^ Willis, Paul (September 12, 2008). "As Few Words as Possible Sarah Cameron Sunde on Jon Fosse". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  16. ^ Varley, Eddie. "Photos: Oslo Elsewhere Premieres 'Sa Ka La'". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  17. ^ Smith, Timmy (June 2009). "Talking Amish: Jessica Dickey and Sarah Cameron Sunde with Tommy Smith". The Brooklyn Rail.
  18. ^ "The Diary of a Teenage Girl - New Georges". New Georges - Theater Company. May 20, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  19. ^ Brantley, Ben (October 26, 2012). "Tides Come and Go, but She Won't". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  20. ^ Blank, Matthew. "Photo Call: A Summer Day, Starring Karen Allen, Opens Off-Broadway". Playbill.
  21. ^ Pilecki, Michelle. "Quantum Theatre's Dream of Autumn". Pittsburgh City Paper. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  22. ^ "Oslo Elsewhere / Our Team". osloelsewhere.org. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  23. ^ "Sarah Cameron Sunde". Words Without Borders. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  24. ^ "Sarah Cameron Sunde". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  25. ^ "2021 MAP Fund Grantees". MAP Fund. April 30, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  26. ^ "2019 Grantees". MAP Fund. June 18, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  27. ^ "Award Winners". grants.pgfusa.org. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  28. ^ "Sarah Cameron Sunde". americanscandinavian.org. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
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