In his work, Satterwhite draws from a variety of different references, including video games, art history, and his own familial archive, to explore memory, identity, and the construction of selfhood. In Country Ball 1989-2012 (2012), the artist combines digital animations of himself with home video of a family cookout to create an immersive landscape inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. Using a green screen, Satterwhite created 100 different avatars of himself, imagining new versions of himself.“We are in the age of the remix,” the artist says. “There is no such thing as originality anymore. Now it is just about how you use the information around you to generate your individuality.” In other works, such as Reifying Desire 3 (2012), the artist references The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio, looking at the figure of “Doubting Thomas” as a means of defying mortality.  for his own mortality. Birds in Paradise (2019), on the other hand, uses the format of video games such as Final Fantasy IV to continue exploring themes of rebirth and renewal. Through scenes that reference African traditions of rebirth, digital avatars of himself vogueing, and drone footage of climate catastrophes, Satterwhite highlights moments of rebirth. Alongside this digital world are 3D printed objects of his mother’s drawings of imagined consumer objects, which Satterwhite reinterpreted as sculptures, blurring the lines of authorship between mother and son. By remixing and reinterpreting various references, both personal and formal, the artist creates a body of work that complicates ideas of how we present ourselves and how we are remembered. 

Blending the digital and physical worlds through performance and installation, Satterwhite presents a body of work celebrating community, love, and freedom. In many of his works, such as his Reifying Desire series (2011-2014), the artist records himself and his community dancing, vogueing, and performing to create digital avatars that populate his works. In other works such as A Metta Prayer (2024), the artist blends animation with sound, projection, and performance to imagine a world centered around love and kindness. Projected on the walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the work was originally commissioned, are animations of figures floating in an ethereal cyberspace, staging flash mobs to combat police brutality, and collecting points that get them closer to enlightenment. Satterwhite combines these with live performances by artists, friends, and community members, bringing the ideas of his digital world into a physical space. “The narrative I am most interested in is what happens when drawing, performance, and animation intersect,” the artist states. “How am I extending the frame?” Working across performance, animation, and installation, and pulling from different references, Satterwhite’s work bridges the digital and the real to create a hybridized world that more fully explores the different facets of identity, creating spaces in both realms that celebrate freedom and community.