HD video, objects, installation; 78’; edition of 5 + 2 AP
Birds in Paradise by Jacolby Satterwhite is a tripartite video installation comprised of a two-channel animation. The suite of films is scored by a conceptual folk recording the artist made from a cappella recordings written and sung by his late mother, the artist Patricia Satterwhite, and presented in a theater of objects that echoes the domestic space. Birds in Paradise – titled after a key record that speaks to the films’ visual refrain – is compiled from an archive of borrowed anecdotes, personal mythologies, drawings, and experimental-dance performance footage accumulated by the artist throughout his life. He derives his film-making strategies from Fluxus and Surrealist principles, revolving around chance and irrational juxtaposition for a queer Boschian tableau, punctuated by performances by artists, queer activists, dancers, sex workers, and actors from his community.
