“I Had an iPod on My Pussy”: An Eight-Minute Cig With Artist Jacolby Satterwhite

WEDNESDAY 8:07 PM MAY 22, 2024 UPPER EAST SIDE

In this week’s installment of Smoke Break, we lit one up with the artist and provocateur Jacolby Satterwhite, who we tracked down outside of Gustavino’s, where the 53-year-old collective and non-profit The Kitchen, which Satterwhite described as “one of the most vital and important institutes in New York City,” hosted its stately Spring 2024 Spring Gala. Among the night’s honorees were Lynn Hershman Leeson, Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi, and Max Roach, who were fêted with performances by the artist Justin Allen and the musician Eartheater. “When I walked into the room, I felt a welcoming energy,” Satterwhite said. Outside, we kept up the vibes over American Spirits and talked Gaga, Miami, and why the Solar Eclipse threw everyone out of whack.

JACOLBY SATTERWHITE: I love that Interview Magazine is promoting cigarettes.

JAKE NEVINS: Yeah. What are we smoking?

SATTERWHITE: American Spirits. The light green menthols. But I can’t find my lighter.

NEVINS: I’ve got one.

SATTERWHITE: Okay. Good.

NEVINS: Let’s give it up for our girl Eartheater.

SATTERWHITE: Oh my god. I love her. You know, I went to see the Chromatic Ball with her and Patrick Belaga and my ex-boyfriend. It was so funny because I was like, the overzealous Gaga fan and they were like—

NEVINS: I mean, there are only overzealous Gaga fans…

SATTERWHITE: They weren’t really, like, regular listeners of Gaga, so I was trying to cheerlead them. It was weird.

NEVINS: Put your paws up. Are we excited about the Chromatica Ball on Max? There’s our Max plug.

SATTERWHITE: Absolutely. Actually, I really liked that tour. Sometimes the tours get so enormous they feel sterilized, but this one will be good on HBO.

NEVINS: I’m excited. Anyway, Eartheater was so good. I actually spent a night with her at The Standard a few years ago and we got kicked out of the pool at 7AM.

SATTERWHITE: Wait. In New York?

NEVINS: No, no. Miami.

SATTERWHITE: When was this?

NEVINS: Like, three years ago.

SATTERWHITE: Wait. Remind me. I was with you?

NEVINS: No. You weren’t there.

SATTERWHITE: Oh, I wasn’t there. See, this is my life. The first time I went to Miami for Basel was like, the craziest party event ever and I remember waking up with half of my face in the sand.

NEVINS: Like, on the beach?

SATTERWHITE: Yes. And I booked my flight one day early home.

NEVINS: That’s how I feel when I leave Miami. Three nights, max.

SATTERWHITE: I love Miami. But yeah, it’s the wild, wild west. It’s kind of like Berlin, but not like Berlin. By that I mean like, Rico Suave, ew, gross, gas station vibes.

NEVINS: Right. Okay, so what’s tonight giving? We love The Kitchen.

SATTERWHITE: Tonight is giving a rebirth and reset. I feel like the eclipse really, really shook things up for everything. It brought in the necessary darkness to rattle people’s surfaces, including my own. My whole life turned upside down during the eclipse.

NEVINS: How so?

SATTERWHITE: Oh my god, Jake. Don’t get me started. Canceled shows and weird drama and weird, tumultuous friendship stuff.

NEVINS: Well, how are you doing now?

SATTERWHITE: When I walked into the room, I felt a welcoming energy, a reunion of sorts, I felt peace and I felt love. And I have this weird, canary red outfit on that I literally collaged together through, like, DHL boxes that I found on the ground.

NEVINS: It’s fucking fierce. Where’s the top from?

SATTERWHITE: It’s a vintage Misho shirt.

NEVINS: I feel a little overdressed.

SATTERWHITE: I always leverage the artist privilege to wear whatever I want to a gala. Like, “I’m a creative.” Anyway, my first time at The Kitchen, I did a performance with a structural costume with one of my early 3-D animations that I was exhibiting in Chelsea at the same time. It was at the very beginning of my career, around like 2009. It was really faggoty. It was really gay. I had an iPod on my pussy.

NEVINS: You had an iPod on your pussy?

SATTERWHITE: Like, the screen. I sewed it in. I went to Steinlauf & Stoller and I did the whole John Paul Gaultier Madonna corset thing.

NEVINS: With the cone bra?

SATTERWHITE: Yeah. Well, I sewed it all like couture and did this durational performance and it was really camp. It was a really good show. The Kitchen has some of my favorite performances. I didn’t want to name-drop. The names I wanted to drop, I was like, “I don’t want to drop that name.”

NEVINS: This is the time to name-drop, babe.

SATTERWHITE: The Kitchen is one of the most vital and important institutes in New York City. It is historic. I’ve been to some really serious political events but also some really irreverent things. One of my favorite performances I saw there was a Narcissister performance. It was Derrick Adams. Narcissister does these incredible, sort of extreme burlesque but masquerade performances that are really subversive. And I remember she pulled out an entire bargain bin out of her vagina. Like, she kept pulling out, like, shoes and socks. It was really crazy. You’ll have to look her up. That was something where I was like, “I love New York and I want to be here.” It probably was what made me lean into my own transgressive ways.

NEVINS: Look at you now.

SATTERWHITE: Yeah…

NEVINS: I’ll leave you with this. You’ve done shows and installations in some of the most regal, stately buildings in New York.

SATTERWHITE: Oh my gosh.

NEVINS: Tonight we’re at Gustavino’s, which is pretty sick. What are you doing to the space? Is it inspiring anything for you?

SATTERWHITE: Mm-hmm. I’m making a chandelier of, like, LED transparent holograms and, like, a sea of red robins orbiting something centrally large. It’s about singularity in 2230.