You're at Home
You’re at Home is an immersive exhibit that archives details about Jacolby Satterwhite and his life living through various hardships. The exhibit features bold colors and neon lighting in a relatively darkened space. The walls feature a combination of Satterwhite’s projected digital art and structural displays. The structures were primarily brightly colored ‘floating shelves’ (attached to the walls). With exception to the walls that featured projections (dark spaces of the exhibit with blackened walls), the walls generally featured neon patterns. The patterns had a sense of repetition throughout with elements of futuristic, digital aesthetics.
Surrounding the shelves, there were digital devices playing pre-recorded videos of mythical spaces Satterwhite created. These videos featured characters that were morphed and distorted in physical space with a similar art style to popular 90s video games such as Final Fantasy. In other spaces of the exhibit, the black walls featured large-scale projections of his videos – where the only source of light was the projections on the walls. In select areas, visitors were given the opportunity to view the pieces in a virtual space with the help of VR headsets.
Patricia Satterwhite Drawings
3D renderings of his mother’s drawings were scattered throughout the exhibit and displayed on the wall shelving units. The drawings were transferred to a digital format, printed, then spray painted solid colors – pre-designated by the artist. These drawings depicted devices that could help with common household tasks. Jacolby also worked with Nick Weiss (a producer from Teengirl Fantasy) to create auditory tracks for the exhibit. Throughout her years, Satterwhite’s mother would create acapella songs at home and in mental hospitals about what she was going through. Jacolby took these recordings and, with the help of Weiss, created edm-influenced tracks that featured his mothers’ acapella songs.
Beyond Satterwhite himself, the exhibit was heavily focused on his mother Patricia Satterwhite. Patricia Satterwhite lived with schizophrenia and was in and out of hospitals for the majority of Jacolby’s childhood. The exhibit acted as a tribute to his late mother and depicted the ‘home’ she created in her mind. In fact, the foundation of the exhibit came from his perception of the world in combination with the world his mother perceived. As a child Jacolby also had cancer and used video games such as final fantasy as a form of escape from his reality (“Jacolby Satterwhite: You’re…”). This influence presents itself through the stylistic editing of his pieces as well as the bold and bright coloration of the space.
The raw materials for You’re at Home were heavily focused on his mother’s artistic work. Throughout her experiences with schizophrenia, Patricia created many artistic pieces including designs for household items (Szremski). This ultimately created a space for a reflection on the schizophrenic world imagined by his mother. He not only wanted to create an archive of what she imagined but also include her directly through the installations – as she was a large part of what Satterwhite viewed as home. The 3D renderings of her designs also provided sculptural work for the exhibit space and created variety for the viewers.
You’re at Home acted was created in a space of the home in his mind combined with elements of the real world. The fragmented recollections of his mother’s world were incorporated with the technology of the modern world to create a physical space in reality. Furthermore, Satterwhite intended to create a home-y space and included physical structures such as hanging clothes, shelves with personal items, mirrors, etc. to create a space resembling the rooms within a home. Originally, he went to Pioneer Works to create the 3D prints of his mother’s drawings for consumer products, but the space was modified in order to encapsulate the visions Satterwhite had for a home (“The Incredulity of…”). His general focus was centered around creating a place that existed for him but brought it into a physical space where others could experience his reality.
From the 90s, to the 2010s, and beyond, this exhibit can be attributed to Satterwhite’s life and the home he created in his mind. Much of his art has distinct influences from his mother and her works, but after his mother’s passing in 2016, Satterwhite wanted to create one final composite collection of her works. Aesthetically inspired by the digital media of the early 90s – the video games he played when he was ill – Jacolby combines the technology of the 21st century to create a new visual landscape. Jacolby also wanted to capture his abstract reaction to the American cultures surrounding sports, money, pharmaceuticals, and the American dream based on his experiences vs what the media praises in modern times.
Video courtesy of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q55AVeXzqeE (see 31:39)
Satterwhite continues to create art focused on home in other pieces. In collaboration with Solange for her When I Get Home album, Jacolby created a visual album to accompany the piece. The visual aspect was set in an alternative universe and included some of Satterwhite’s elements of 3D animation; however, this video branched off from some of his other media and demonstrated a more direct translation of the concept (Cascone). Much like his other pieces, there are fantastical elements of futuristic environments, but the visuals are more grounded in reality. The characters continue to dance in more contemporary, interpretive methods, but the limb rigging follows relatively realistic movement patterns – as opposed to bending beyond natural human limitations. Conceptually, this piece is similar to You’re at Home. Both pieces utilize the intersection of animation and music to explore Solange and Satterwhite’s individual childhood experiences. They feature key elements – such as locations, items, etc. – to build a physical world for their concept of ‘home’.
Image Courtesy of: https://www.neuroblooms.com/
One common thread in all of Satterwhite’s work is the conceptual topics of his mother and her schizophrenia. Another artist who creates art related to mental health similarly to Satterwhite would be Leslie Holt. In her Brain Stain series, Holt depicts positron emission tomography scans (a.k.a. PET scans). Through a comparison of healthy brains and brains of those with mental illnesses, Holt created art that acted as a visual comparison to the healthy brains (Saha). Like Satterwhite, Holt focuses on creating visually impactful pieces that utilize vibrant colors to explore the concept of mental health. Both exhibits act as physical representations for mental health conditions. In addition, both artists utilize realistic research elements (Patricia Satterwhite’s experiences and the PET scans respectively) but include their creative twist on the pieces. In Holt’s case, she uses interpretive shapes and colors to represent the illness based on the PET scans while Satterwhite places his mother’s schizophrenic creations in colorful, imaginative contexts.
In the exhibit You’re at Home, Satterwhite was essentially creating a home for his mother since she was never able to fabricate the world in her mind. From the perspective of an adoring son, Jacolby Satterwhite simply wanted to create a ‘home’ where his mother could be the star and live her reality. This personalized biography was partially a culmination of his daily ‘research’ of his mother. The tribute explored the world Patricia Satterwhite lived in through the stylistic lens of her son in combination with his reality.
At its core, You’re at Home was an exploration of ‘home’ and an opportunity for regeneration, healing, and resurrection. He ultimately found healing after her passing by bringing her to life one final time with the exhibit. The individual pieces are stylized visualizations of the world Satterwhite accepted as reality in combination with the reality his mother lived. Her essence is scattered throughout the exhibit through not only the small sculptures but also the remix of her acapella songs. Satterwhite also discusses the depth of trauma he has experienced in his life and how art has acted as a form of escapism.
“[Satterwhite has] the ability to extend the body into space without having to contend with a whole lot of conceptual baggage”
The visuals depicted combine elements of video game worlds with the reality of life Satterwhite experienced with his mother and his time in hospitals. There are nostalgic elements of his life as a form of healing through the personification of his mother’s art, but the work extends beyond the realistic elements and captures a more mystifying landscape where he found happiness under otherwise unfortunate circumstances. As a result, the exhibit is created with dream-like visual elements.
Satterwhite creates a physical and tactile representation for not only these pieces, but also his presence in the world and who he is as an artist. Due to health issues in his youth, Satterwhite was not expected to live into adulthood. In combination with the loss of his mother, Satterwhite uses this piece as a reflection on his life as he explores topics of mortality. You’re at Home acts as a way for Satterwhite to ground himself in reality and declare his presence in the world (“The Incredulity of…”). Being freed from a sense of mortality when he overcame his childhood cancer diagnosis, Jacolby was introduced to a world where he had a foreseeable future, which introduced questions of what home is.
In conclusion, You’re at Home takes visitors on a journey of the home he conjured in his eleven-year-old mind. Rather than simply presenting the hardships Satterwhite faced, he creates an exhibit that depicts a more fascinated approach to the universe. Ultimately, Satterwhite demonstrates the beauty in hardship and how he chose to explore happiness in his life.
Biography:
Aima, Rahal. “The Tactile Technological Touch of Jacolby Satterwhite.” Art21 Magazine, 2019, magazine.art21.org/2019/08/23/the-tactile-technological-touch-of-jacolby-satterwhite/#.XnBV9qhKhPY.
Cascone, Sarah. “'I Had a Deep Synesthesia Response': Artist Jacolby Satterwhite on Collaborating With Solange to Develop Her Latest Visual Album.” Artnet News, 7 Mar. 2019, news.artnet.com/art-world/jacolby-satterwhite-solange-music-video-1483144.
Goldstein, Caroline. “'We're In the Age of the Remix': Watch Jacolby Satterwhite Use His Own Body to Shift Perceptions of His Persona.” Artnet News, Artnet News, 19 Sept. 2019, news.artnet.com/exhibitions/jacolby-satterwhite-art21-1656043.
“The Incredulity of Jacolby Satterwhite | Art21 ‘New York Close Up.’” YouTube, Art21, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WljeAovjtc&feature=youtu.be.
“Jacolby Satterwhite: You're at Home.” Pioneer Works, 2019, pioneerworks.org/exhibitions/jacolby-satterwhite-youre-at-home/.
Saha, Joy. “‘Neuro Blooms’ Works to Destigmatize Mental Illness with Vibrant Art.” The Diamondback, 2020, dbknews.com/2020/02/17/umd-neuro-blooms-stamp-art-exhibit/.
Szremski, Ania. “Jacolby Satterwhite's ‘You're at Home.’” Art, 19 Nov. 2019, www.art-agenda.com/features/301679/jacolby-satterwhite-s-you-re-at-home.
