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).
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]
From 2004 to 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 to 2017.
