LINCOLN CENTER – JACOLBY SATTERWHITE: AN ECLECTIC DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME

AN ECLECTIC DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME, 2022
HD COLOR VIDEO AND 3D ANIMATION; 27:23 MINS

ARTIST: JACOLBY SATTERWHITE
LOCATION: LINCOLN CENTER DAVID GEFFEN HALL
CASTING DIRECTOR: DAMIAN BAO

“Satterwhite’s “An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time,” a half-hour video that will play on all 400 square feet of the lobby’s digital wall whenever it’s not simulcasting concerts, offers a kind of simulated timeless Lincoln Center. News tickers share factoids about the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, especially relating to Black musicians and composers (like the opera singer Marian Anderson or the child prodigy Philippa Schuyler). Dancers and musicians, choreographed by Satterwhite, silently follow their muses under billboard-size photos of performers from the past in a constantly moving digital landscape. As the views swing gently in and out and the video’s muted colors cycle through four sections, the piece achieves an extraordinary balance between stasis and movement, picture and narrative, the excitement of the present and the grandeur of history.” – The New York Times

Jacolby Satterwhite’s commission for David Geffen Hall reconsiders the past, present, and future of Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic. An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time weaves together archival images, live action footage, and digital animation. We see a colorful and densely layered festival of performance that traverses historical periods through virtual space. Satterwhite’s inclusive cast represents artists since the Philharmonic’s founding in 1842, while featuring young musicians and dancers from across New York City. They play instruments and dance on stages and sculptural monuments set into a landscape inspired by Central Park and surrounded by buildings covered in screens, reminiscent of Times Square. Grounded in a more democratic view of history, Satterwhite’s work offers us his playful and richly inventive vision of a creatively empowered future.  

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is one of the world’s premiere performing arts organizations. On October 8, 2022, David Geffen Hall reopened as a welcoming cultural anchor for New York City, some 60 years after it was first inaugurated as the home of the New York Philharmonic. The new Hall reimagines the concert-going experience by providing more inclusive public spaces for diverse cultural performances and community uses. This initiative includes an annual program of art commissions, where all members of the public are invited to engage with the work of leading contemporary artists free of charge. The democratic approach instills a sense of welcome both indoors and out, beckoning those who may never have interacted with Lincoln Center or the New York Philharmonic, and encouraging those long familiar with the campus to see it afresh.

Public Art Fund partnered with The Studio Museum in Harlem to advise Lincoln Center on the selection of artists for this first iteration of the art program. Artist Jacolby Satterwhite was selected to animate the 50-foot Hauser Digital Wall in the lobby of David Geffen Hall with a richly layered and inclusive celebration of performance that brings into dialogue the past, present and future. The artwork is commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem and Public Art Fund.