Published by Miller Institute for Contemporary Art at Carnegie Mellon University. Edited by Elizabeth Chodos and Andrew Durbin. Preface by Elizabeth Chodos. Introduction by Andrew Durbin. Contributions by Sasha Bonét, Malik Gaines, Jane Ursula Harris, Legacy Russell, Kimberly Drew.
This is the first comprehensive survey on Jacolby Satterwhite (born 1986), who is celebrated for his prolific conceptual practice that engages a wide range of media to create layered and exuberant 3D animated films, immersive installations, sculptures, electronic dance tracks and performances. Satterwhite draws on diverse influences that include modernism, gaming, queer theory, mythology and Black culture, and possesses a special ability to turn existential uncertainty into a generative engine of resilience, reinvention and celebration—a quality he shares with his late mother and muse, Patricia Satterwhite. In her diagrams for visionary household products and recordings of ethereal vocals, she leveraged her own irrepressible creativity to transform hardship into new worlds of possibility. A world-builder himself, Satterwhite’s multiform gestalt can be fully appreciated for the first time through this exhibition and companion monograph. Mapping this holistic view of Satterwhite’s masterful synthesis of personal, theoretical and pop-cultural influences across a wide range of materials and genres, this book affirms his position as one of the preeminent makers and thinkers of our time.
