Summary

Reifying Desire Five features sensuous inventions of Satterwhite's mother's design. A reclining water seat holds five still 3D models of idealized black female nudes, postured in the manner of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Flying above in a silver jumpsuit, Satterwhite spills digital globules of incendiary bubble bath labeled "Pussy Power" onto the women's enlarged pubic hair, then animates their bodies with multi-hued lasers. Transported to another realm, one of the women encounters a man who applies "lipstick for between the legs" to her. Consequently she sprouts an enlarged male member spraying digital Jacolbys, which another man eagerly spoon-feeds to himself. By queering his mother's fantastical re-imaginings of culturally proscribed self-care products as well as art historical representations of black female sexuality, Satterwhite pursues what he has described as an alternative, utopian space for performance.