Abby Sunde

MFA Glass

Looking in All Directions

My practice is a material exploration of glass, sound, light, and installation that invites others into a practice of desettling: a mode of resistance, tender resilience, and refusal. Drawing on concepts of interconnectedness, interwoven time, embodied memory, and community, this work acts as an offering of alterity that uncenters expected encounters with an inherited dominant worldview and offers an actualized shift in awareness with the earth and with each other.

What does it mean to inhabit the world differently, to loosen the grip of inherited ways of seeing and to move through life at another pace?

Variously sized, amorphous shapes of thin sheet glass are installed on a white wall, twisting off of the wall's surface, with the wall extending in the distance. Traces of brown, oak leaf ashes are embedded within the glass.

A close up of variously sized, amorphous shapes of thin sheet glass installed on a white wall, twisting off of the wall's surface. Traces of brown, oak leaf ashes are embedded within the glass.

Leaf Bodies
15'x10'
Installation of fused glass and traces of fallen leaves

Exploring the deep relationships of embodied memories and the world around us, Leaf Bodies is an installation of fused glass with traces of fallen leaves embedded within it, which was then hot-shaped within the kiln.

A black and white photograph of the side of a human waist. The waist extends from beyond the top and bottom of the photograph, covered in a flat texture of tree bark.

Bark Bodies I
48"x18"
Print on paper

The bark of a tree body and the skin of a human being are forms of protection and are the surface of interaction between the world and the being within. These membranes protect us and facilitate our ability to engage with the world.

A black and white photograph of a human forearm that extends from the top to the bottom of the photo. The arm is covered in a flat texture of tree bark.

Bark Bodies III
18"x10"
Print on Paper

Bark Bodies is an ongoing series exploring the protective layers of the human body and trees and our close relationality to one another.

A black and white drawing with drooping concentric circles extending from a dark semi-circle. The flow of the lines are akin to tree knots and the earth's magnetosphere.

Earth Shields
48"x24"
Dirt, graphite, and copper foil on hardboard with
sounds of the earth’s magnetosphere

This drawing is a visual echo of the earth's own magnetosphere, the protective shield which keeps us safe from solar winds and radiation. Viewers were invited to touch the drawing, which was activated through a capacitive touch sensor. When the lines of the drawing were touched, audio from European Space Agency’s began to play, depicting the earth’s magnetosphere interacting with solar flares.

A dark room with three glass orbs on tall, thin pedestals. A small light shines on each orb, causing the orbs to glow and cast caustic light effects onto the walls nearby.

In Consideration of Time
Sound, light, glass

In considering the cyclical nature of time, this installation explores the way we engage with time through its corporeal and ephemeral resonances. First order ambisonics through eight audio exciters were installed throughout the room, creating spatial audio of crashing waves and a deep dronescape reminiscent of chanting that moved in waves through the room. Small lights shown through hand-blown glass orbs to cast caustic light within the space.

A brown, raised flooring with 4 groupings of large rocks. The rocks are lit from above, highlighting their presence on the flooring.

A close-up of a pair of rocks, the large one is angular, with a soft oval shaped rock leaning against it. The two rocks are on a brown flooring, with smaller rocks off in the distance.

Collective Heartbeats
Borrowed rocks from Anishinaabe and Narraganset lands, Ojibwe, phonetics, sound, time
10'x8'4"x10'6"

Reflecting on the ways in which the earth speaks and our bodies listen, this installation invited viewers to sit with the rocks. Ojibwe phonetics emitted through the floor and resonated as a physical connection source for the viewer, the socks, and the space. Two channels of audio played the phonetics, one channel set to the pace of a sleeping human heartbeat and the second channel set to the pace of the earth's own heartbeat.

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