Laser Talk: Tidalectic Rhythms

You are warmly invited to: Tidalectic Rhythms: A Durational Performance with Te Manukanuka O Hoturoa

The first Laser talk of 2020 is a forum on Te Manukanuka O Hoturoa. In the LASER forum, New York artist Sarah Cameron Sunde, Dr Marama Muru-Lanning, Director of the James Henare Research Centre at the University of Auckland, and environmental scientist Nicholas Vigar (Auckland Council, Safeswim) who will each discuss their perspectives on this body of water.

The Manukau harbour is the site of New York based artist Sarah Cameron Sunde’s performance artwork 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea which will take place on the last Sunday in March. This event is the eighth performance in a series spanning six continents over seven years. At each site, Sunde stands in a tidal bay for a full tidal cycle (12-13 hours) as the water engulfs her body up to her chin and then recedes back down to her feet. Our local community is involved in making the Manukau harbour site of this work, including an invitation to stand with Sarah in the water, or to mark the passing of the hours from the shore.

The discussion will raise a series of urgent questions – what issues are important for Te Manukanuka O Hoturoa and te mauri o te wai from an Indigenous perspective? What questions does Sarah’s performance raise about the waters of the Manukau harbour and the gradually rising seas around the Tāmaki isthmus? What ‘tidalectic’ rhythms occur in this event, in poet Edward Kamau Braithwaite’s geo-poetic sense unsettle colonial framings of place? The speakers will explore how performance strategies, scientific research, deep histories and contemporary water politics can open understandings about the environmental and cultural health of our harbours, and the global implications of sea-level rise.

This Laser Talk and Sarah’s performance are co-hosted by the School of Art and Design, AUT and Te Uru gallery. Hosted by Janine Randerson and Dr Valence Smith.

About 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea:

Sarah’s exhibition at Te Uru in Auckland (opening March 7th) will feature a cycle of four multi-channel videos, one from each location where Sunde has performed since 2015: The Netherlands, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Kenya.

The eighth work in the series will be created here in Manukau Harbour, starting on March 5, in collaboration with Te Uru and AUT, with the performance scheduled for March 29. The video work made in the Manukau harbour will premiere here during the first week in April. 36.5 generates personal, local, and global conversations about deep time and sea-level rise.