Jacolby Satterwhite, Reifying Desire 5, 2013. Production still from the New York Close Up episode, Jacolby Satterwhite Dances with His Self. © Art21, Inc. 2013.
What does utopia look like to you?
Artist Jacolby Satterwhite's ambitious new project began by asking this question directly to the residents of the Fairfax neighborhood of Cleveland, the site of a new development by the Cleveland Clinic.
The resulting CGI fantasy film, Dawn, will explore the visions of Clevelanders who contributed drawings and images to the project. Inspired by the solace he found in the fantasy worlds of video games during his own childhood cancer treatment, Satterwhite has expanded a working method he has previously used with his mother’s archive of drawings in order to work with—and learn from—a much larger community.
Installed both as virtual reality arcade at the Cleveland Institute of Art and mounted on a freestanding sculptural screen outside of the BioRepository building at the Cleveland Clinic, Dawn will transform a didactic gallery space into a site of interaction and play, while also bringing a powerful artistic exploration of recovery into a scientific setting. Connecting these two important Cleveland institutions through a dialogue about art and healing, the project will also expand beyond institutional walls using geolocation technology to allow for viewing online and across the city. In its collaborative approach, focus on healing, and multifaceted distribution, Satterwhite’s immersive installation will expand the boundaries of virtual reality applications and instantiate FRONT 2022’s explorations of therapeutic processes.
Local engagement for Dawn has been led by multidisciplinary Cleveland-based artists RA Washington and LaToya Kent. Washington and Kent connected with over one hundred Fairfax residents who contributed drawings to the project. Reflecting on her experience, Kent writes: “I was full in my heart after the time spent in this neighborhood. Looking over the drawings and remembering each face. Connecting to the stories of this predominantly black section of town. I felt survival and love. Trust and beauty. Pride and striving to be seen.”
The night the newest edition of the FRONT International opened in Cleveland, the show’s curator, Prem Krishnamurthy, could be found at karaoke bar called Tina’s, belting out a beery rendition of Britney Spears’s Toxic. Before him was a rag-tag crowd of local barflies, goth kids, rust-belt cowboys, baseball bros—as well as a cadre of the international art world there for the show. Everyone was singing along. Tina’s wasn’t one of the official sites of the triennial exhibition (which is funny, because seemingly every other venue in Northeast Ohio is), but Krishnamurthy called the event the “crux of the show.” “Karaoke,” he said, “can be such a leveling force. There, in that big room, there are all these different people you don’t know, but everybody’s cheering each other on. When somebody sings, everybody else claps for them and everybody else joins in. To me, that is beautiful.”
Across the harbour from Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where yachts can be spotted gliding out to Lake Erie, two water spouts shoot skyward like whale exhalations. This fountain is part of To Those Who Nourish (2022), a three-year project by London-based duo Cooking Sections that addresses low oxygen levels in the lake caused by agricultural runoff. Organised by Spaces gallery and commissioned by the Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, whose second edition opened 16 July after a one-year pandemic delay, the work is a tribute to nine Ohio farms committed to eliminating chemical fertiliser.
For its second edition, the Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art will feature more than 75 artists whose work meditates on the notion of healing and its many meanings. The triennial will run from July 16 through October 2, and will be curated by team led by Prem Krishnamurthy, who has titled the exhibition “Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows,” a quotation from a poem by Langston Hughes, who lived in Cleveland as a child. As with the first edition, staged in 2018, this year’s Front International will be staged across sites in Cleveland and the nearby cities of Akron and Oberlin.
