Creek: Two Cavities of the Heart is a collaborative, site specific research and public art project conducted at Coney Island Creek by the performance artist and urban swimmer Nora Almeida and videographer iki nakagawa. Creek explores relationships between people, water, and shoreline ecosystems and seeks to understand care practices and transcorporeal embodiment––between human bodies, water bodies, and more-than-human species–in the context of climate crisis.
Creek, originated in 2023, exists at the intersection of two projects originated by Nora and iki. Nora’s embodied research, oral history, and art project Open Water explores cultural, ecological, economic, and political dimensions of water relationships and swimming practices across time and geography. iki’s project, thoughts for tomorrow, movements for today, uses videography to witness, learn and record concrete acts of stewardship, and release these recordings to different space over time.
In February 2024, they volunteered in Venado Verde, Buenaventura, Colombia with a community of Afro Colombians in the biodiverse rainforest of Cauca region threatened by waste mismanagement pollution. Their individual and collective works have generated an archive that exists in their bodies and as a collection of video, audio, photography, garbage, prints, field notes, and journals.
iki and Nora have organized workshops with the public on site at the creek and have presented installations and performances activating the archives at various venues. They plan to return to Venado Verde in 2027 to continue their work with the community there.
On Site at Coney Island Creek, 2023-2025
August 26, 2023
July 13, 2024
August 14, 2024
October 26, 2024
June 29, 2025
Non-Site Installations and Archival Activations, 2023-2025
June 27, 2024, Store Front Arts and Architecture, NYC, NY, U.S.A
August 23, 2024, FEED Media Art Center, Erie, PA, U.S.A
October 25, 2024, Graduate Center at City University of NY, NYC, NY, U.S.A
July 5, 2025, Gowanus Dredgers Boat House, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A
August 28-October 26, 2025, Art Center on Governors Island, NYC, NY, U.S.A
photos by Aisha Bennett and iki nakagawa