Esta Nesbitt papers, circa 1942-1981, bulk 1964-1975

The Projects and Exhibitions series contains a variety of materials related to Nesbitt's books, exhibitions, films, performance and participatory art, and other projects. The bulk of material in the series documents Nesbitt's major multimedia works, and her Xerography and Shadow Paintings exhibitions. Types of documentation are listed under the project or exhibition title, and include correspondence, annotated clippings, microfilm, notes, sketches and diagrams, tape transcripts, motion picture film, sound recordings, photographs, publicity, and source material.

The piece Walk up-Tape on is documented with notes, photographs, and xerography. The one reel of microfilm contains documentation mostly related to Walk up-Tape on. Many, but not all, of the documents reproduced in the microfilm are found in the collection.

Nesbitt's film and sound performance piece titled "Everyman as Anyman, or Putting On, On, On, On, On," was a multichannel projection of silent, super 8 mm films projected with as many as five stationary and moving film projectors alongside multilayered sound recordings. The motion picture film and sound recordings consist of 26 reels of Super 8 film and four sound tape reels. 23 of the film reels are numbered and one is labeled simply "GOD;" note that there is no reel 2 in the collection and the reel labeled GOD has two duplicate reels. Visual content is a wide array of abstract imagery, text, solid color frames, artwork, and split screen imagery, and ranges from three to five second shots to much longer shots. The sound track contains electronic music and spoken word recordings. Sound track reels consist of three reels of preliminary recordings and one master reel, which contains elements of the preliminary recordings compiled onto a single 2-channel track. Additional details about the content of the film and sound reels can be found in the notebooks for this project, and details about how the reels were projected for various performances are found in the notebook labeled "Everyman Projections." Source material for "Everyman" consists of words written on a variety of material, including paper towels, toilet paper, index cards, and foam boards.

The film "Light Times 499," created with Anibal Ambert, consists of a sequence of xerographic prints from Nesbitt's serial work of the same title. Film and sound recordings consist of two reels of 16mm film and one sound cassette. One of the film reels contains splices, and the other appears to be a print of the spliced film. The cassette is labeled "preliminary soundtrack."

The series also contains documentation about the film "Folding/Struck," but not the film itself.

Various materials related to exhibitions document the creation of works through the installation of exhibition to the exhibition itself. Exhibitions of Nesbitt's xerography work include "Electrostatic Structures: 'New Morphs,'" "Electroworks," "Esta Nesbitt: Xerography Prints," and "Xerography --Extensions in Art." Other exhibitions include the participatory exhibition "1000 Empty 49.3 Grams: A participatory environment" and Nesbitt's exhibition of Shadow Paintings.

Other projects documented in this series include a book entitled Poems of War and Revolution, a manuscript entitled "Sea of Movement," and an illustrated journal entitled "Shadow and Pathways."

Series is arranged alphabetically by project or exhibition and then by format. Most of the film reels are arranged numerically, based on Nesbitt's notations.

Additional documents related to the projects and exhibitions documented in this series can be found in the Correspondence, Writings, Xerography Research Files, and Printed Material series. Documentation about an anti-war exhibit at Parsons School of Design is found in the Biographical Materials series.