August 15, 2013: 11:04am – 11:52pm
12 hours, 48 minutes
live performance + 9 photos
  • 11:06am
  • 1:59pm
  • 2:54pm
  • 4:39pm
  • 5:54pm high tide!
  • 6:53pm
  • 7:45pm
  • 8:24pm
  • 9:20pm

36.5 / Bass Harbor was a spontaneous poetic gesture that came out of months of contemplation about the parallel between an individual struggle to survive on a daily basis and the struggle for humanity to survive in the face of sea-level rise. 21 other artists witnessed this initial performance.

While in the water in Maine, Sunde realized that this project was the beginning of a series. She made a commitment to herself to do the second iteration exactly six months later and the third iteration exactly one year later. As demonstrated by this completed body of work, this commitment was realized, then grew into something larger than Sunde had ever imagined in this tidal bay in Maine.

Below is a statement / poem from Sunde about her initial experiance creating 36.5 / Bass Harbor and what drove her to create this first spontaneous work:

“On Monday, August 12, 2013,
I was sitting on the rocks by a tidal bay in Maine,
thinking about New York City’s current relationship to water
and the contemporary relationship of art to suffering and sacrifice.
The tide was rising and I marveled at how quickly the environment changed.
Rocks were being swallowed whole.
Oh, the strength of the moon!
My foot was soon underwater and it looked other-worldly.
I imagined a human being in the middle of the bay, water slowly moving upward.
I imagined my own body being swallowed and then the water subsiding, leaving me bare.
It had to be done – this was urgent!
Thursday, August 15 was three days away.
It would be my ½ birthday – an ideal moment to begin this new measurement of time.”

  • testing the depth of the water with a pole on Tuesday
  • testing the chair placement on Wednesday morning
  • testing the waters on Wednesday afternoon
  • the mud flats beneath chair at low tide
  • "waiter/wader/water service" brought liquids once an hour
  • "waiter/wader/water service" became more challenging as the day progressed
  • vitals and other important information hung on the wall of the barn
  • 11:52pm dismount from chair

36.5 / Bass Harbor

Bass Harbor, Maine, U.S.
First Work in Series
by Sarah Cameron Sunde

with Barn Arts Collective

Other key collaborators include: Mohawk Arts Collective and the entire gang at The Hamilton Project: Byron Asher, Dan Bourque, Jillie Mae Eddy, Paul Eddy, Sophia Holtz, Jenna Horton, Peter Gage, Karen Lamb, Elise LeBreton, Cherie Magnello, Jabu Mickle-Molefe, Ben Moniz, Liz Morgan, Nice Panit Chantranuluck, Brittany Parker, Dan Rogers, Andrew Simon, Maridee Slater, Jessica Smith, Liz Thaler, Luke Wygodny.