Join us for a special screening of Jacolby Satterwhite’s ambitious six-part series Birds in Paradise and a conversation with the artist.
Birds in Paradise keys the artist, members of his community, recorded footage and CGI avatars into intricate digital landscapes. Satterwhite’s vivid world-building emerges from his archive of borrowed anecdotes, personal mythologies, drawings and experimental dance footage. The series is scored by a conceptual folk soundtrack the artist made from a cappella recordings written and sung by his late mother, artist and musician Patricia Satterwhite. Between dreamy atmospherics, trip-hop and acid-house tracks, her lyrics share poignant reflections on love, healing and growth.
The series opens with a pairing of two-channel videos that juxtapose real and virtual environments. Moments of Silence sees the artist dancing in an empty club alongside a multitude of bodies vogueing in sets filled with tabloid magazines, screens and imaginary household objects. In Birds in Paradise, West African shrouding rituals are reimagined among surreal ancient architecture and mythological creatures.
Satterwhite concluded his series with two works produced both as videos and 360-degree virtual reality. We Are in Hell When We Hurt Each Other shows the ongoing battle for self-protection of the Black femme body. In Shrines, the last work in the series, existential crises sit in tension with the resilience of collective bodies in an image-saturated, post-apocalyptic setting.
Programme
- Introduction by the artist
- Moments of Silence 2019, 2-channel HD colour video and 3D animation, sound, 5 minutes, captioned
- Birds in Paradise 2019, 2-channel HD colour video and 3D animation, sound, 17 minutes, captioned
- Conversation with the artist, 25 minutes
- We Are in Hell When We Hurt Each Other 2020, HD colour video and 3D animation, sound, 24 minutes, captioned
- Shrines 2020, HD colour video and 3D animation, sound, 14 minutes, captioned
Jacolby Satterwhite Moments of Silence 2019, video still. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
Jacolby Satterwhite Birds in Paradise 2019, video still. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
Jacolby Satterwhite Shrines 2020, video still. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
Jacolby Satterwhite We Are in Hell when We Hurt Each Other 2020, video still. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
Jacolby Satterwhite (b.1986, United States) is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work explores themes of labour, consumption, carnality and fantasy through immersive installations and digital media. He uses a range of software to produce intricately detailed animations and live action video populated by the avatars of artists and friends. These animations serve as the stage on which the artist synthesises the multiple disciplines that encompass his practice: illustration, performance, painting, sculpture, photography and writing. Satterwhite draws from an extensive set of references, guided by queer theory, modernism and video game language to challenge conventions of Western art.
All events in the Starr Cinema have a step-free access route available and space for wheelchairs. Works screened as part of the Starr Cinema programme will be captioned.
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