The Coney Island Creek is one of my favorite places to go in the boat,
with its crazy combination of white sand beaches, clear deep water,
and the best beach combing in in New York City.
Nancy likes it there too.
Maybe because of her projects with marine debris, landfills, and the urban waterfront, she is particularly attuned to plastic,
and the weird interactions of objects
that make the Coney Island Creek such a pleasure to explore.
I met Nancy in 2013 when she was starting Citizen Bridge, a walkway that would connect Brooklyn to Governors Island over the Buttermilk Channel.
It sounded so impossible when I first heard about Citizen Bridge, that I thought it was a symbol or a metaphor. I thought Nancy meant Citizen Bridge to work the way the Tide and Current Taxi works, where dysfunction plays a bigger role than practicality.
The more I got to know Nancy however, the more I realized her project was not a metaphor. She raised money, generated tons of support, and the city started paying attention.
She wrote a play about Citizen Bridge, generated prototypes of floating bridges, and made great relational artwork about connecting people to the waterfront,
but in 2016 something changed.
Working on a show at the Bronx River Art Center, Nancy was at a turning point. She had spent years engaging communities and demonstrating how the bridge could benefit other people.
“What if I am the bridge?” she thought.
She made a single floatation unit, one that was designed like the bridge, but just for her. She designed a tarp jumpsuit that attached to the unit. The uniform made me think of something between Rosie the Riveter and a futuristic sanitation worker.
Our trip to Coney Island was a chance to finally photograph the project. I took pictures of the suit and Nancy in it, and then Nancy paddling out to the Verrazano Bridge.
She told me later that staying upright on the barrels was harder than she’d imagined, but it looked perfect in the early morning calm.
The next day she sent her original diagram of the suit.
Looking at the drawings now, I feel they convey a sense of resolve. There is something so determined in the figure’s posture, her back perfectly straight and her head turned toward the viewer,
and then away.
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