‘We’re In the Age of the Remix’: Watch Jacolby Satterwhite Use His Own Body to Shift Perceptions of His Persona

Earlier this year, artist Jacolby Satterwhite made headlines for his
collaboration with Solange on her futuristic, dream-inflected
visual album, When I Get Home. Now, even more viewers will
have a chance to experience Satterwhite’s trippy multimedia art
thanks to two new shows: “Room for Living” at the Fabric Workshop
and Museum in Philadelphia and “You’re at home,” opening at Pioneer
Works in Brooklyn next month.

In 2013, as part of Art21’s “New York Close Up” series, Satterwhite
discussed how he first began using his own body as the subject of
his work. “We’re in the age of the remix,” he said. “It’s about how
you use the information around you to generate your individuality.”
For him, that means drawing from social media, technology, art
history, and his own personal experiences as inspiration.

Growing up in South Carolina, Satterwhite began making art with
his mother, who had a mental illness, and used drawing as a way to
maintain a sense of control. Those drawings are incorporated
in The Matriarch’s Rhapsody, he told Art21.

Another work was informed by his two-year struggle with cancer
as a child, “my body got disrupted,” he said. As a result, he began
adopting alternate personas, wearing custom-made costumes fitted
with iPhones and filming himself on the streets of New York. He
then combines his videos with narrative storylines filmed in his
studio, setting his avatars against psychedelic neon
backgrounds.

Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of
Art21’s “New York Close Up” series, below. “Jacolby Satterwhite: Room for Living” is on
view at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia through
January 19, 2020. “Jacolby Satterwhite: You’re at home” is on view
at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn from October 4–November 24,
2019. 

This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration
between artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking
artists. A new season of the nonprofit Art21’s
flagship Art in the Twenty-First
Century television series is available now on PBS. Catch
all episodes of New York Close
Up and Extended Play and
learn about the organization’s education programs
at Art21.org.

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Satterwhite Use His Own Body to Shift Perceptions of His
Persona appeared first on artnet News.