THE CRESSIDA PROJECT



The Cressida Project
will include an approximately 25-minute video and related prints or paintings and sculptures.

The Cressida Project video will involve two main story lines influenced by Shakespeare, Homer, and other sources. Scenes or images involving confinement, power, control and sadism, interpretation, transmission of knowledge, reproduction, and escape, will implicate questions about identity, trauma, safety, and transformation—if not within a single lifetime, sometimes through succeeding generations. This experimental art video will employ vivid imagery, special effects, and original sound art and music.

This site will be updated as additional pieces are completed; please check back.


HELEN'S STORY
In approximately the year 2056, a young woman is abducted and finds herself in a low cell
in a remote Islamic nation. Her only window is barred with sharpened musical instruments;
her ceiling is laminated with pages from great literature. One day, the pages fall open and
objects drop out.

Works:

Helen's Currency
6-15/16 x 3”, inkjet print with ready-made hologram

The President
Portrait of the President of the Assembly of Emirs, ca. 2054

Helen's Ceiling (Waking)
4 x 8' panel laminated with pages from Shakespeare facsimile First Folio,
Gary Panter's Jimbo in Purgatory, and other literature

Helen's Ceiling (Dreaming)
Similar to Waking, but with more pages, some printed on acetate, and
with holes and assorted objects

Helen's Door
3 x 3' door with hardware and wood-burned designs.

Helen's Find

Helen's Stash

Helen's Window
3 x 3' window barred with mutilated, sharpened, and engraved oboes,
flutes, etc.

ANGELA'S STORY
A middle-aged woman lawyer, single and childless, is immersed in the largest transaction
of her career. She's alone working late in her office one night, when the lights go out. She
walks through the blackness and encounters a bright, devastating vision.

Works:

Angela's Transaction
Large painting based on a 17-page flow chart of a legal transaction

Claudia's Babies
Installation with 24,000 plastic "king cake" babies

CRESSIDA'S STORY
A young woman walks off a cliff.

WORKING DOCUMENTS & OTHER INFORMATION

Drawings:
Helen's Cell
Helen's House
Drawings for Helen's Window and Door
Cell Set Design

Materials:
Instruments for Helen's Window

MAP OF THE U.D.I. E.


Personnel

Video Credits

Stills from The Cressida Project

Installation Photos

Production Photos

Exhibition History

Artist's Statement


The Cressida Project website is part of the C-Cyte website (www.c-cyte.com). All artistic, literary, and other works and design within the Cressida Project website were created by Carolyn Sortor, © 2004-05, except as otherwise noted; all other works within the C-Cyte website were created by Carolyn Sortor, © 2003 or thereabouts, except as otherwise noted. Once you have reached this page, by clicking anywhere on this website other than to view the Terms of Use, you agree to such terms.
Please e-mail any questions or comments relating to The Cressida Project to carolyn at c-cyte dot com.