The artist gratefully acknowledges the support and trust of Diane Foley and The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. 

The Foundation was started by Diane Foley in 2014. Their mission is to advocate for the safe return of all Americans detained abroad, to protect independent conflict journalists and to educate regarding these threats to our freedom. The Foundation provided me with the portable hard drives Foley used to back up his personal and professional files. This is the first time such sensitive and vital information has been accessed since his death. 

Inescapable Truths is a project that honors the life and work of American conflict journalist James Foley (1973-2014). 

Foley used external hard drives to back photographic- and video footage taken while he was working in Libya and Syria. For the past year, Bradley McCallum has been working with Foley's hard drives to identify key sequences in his work and to use this as source material for new artworks. 

McCallum is currently in the process of creating a series of layered paintings of which are built from collages of video stills and photographs. His intention is to reframe vital moments of which Foley documented- and to express the trauma, loss, and human consequences of war, as well as the importance of conflict journalists who report from the fields.

Mercy (Benghazi, Libya, March 19th 2011, 6:06 am)

Jim Foley worked as a freelance journalist and videographer in Libya during the height of the Arab Spring in 2011. Early in the conflict, the fighting was sporadic and chaotic. McCallum's painting captures a scene from March 2011 in which a field ambulance returns from the front. It appears one of the men in the truck has a noose around his neck. The silk captures two frames of this hectic scene and diffuses the brutality of this image, shifting the focus to the drama that is swirling and unfolding as the community bears witness to what is turning into a revolution.

Retreat (Road to Ajdabiya, Libya, April 1st 2011, 12:00pm)

Details; Retreat (Road to Ajdabiya, Libya, April 11th 2011, 12:00pm) 

Brothers  (Libya, August 12th 2011, 12:32 am)

When Jim first returned to Libya in August, he focused on families, particularly children, who had suffered during the fighting. This painting combines two photographs that Jim took of these brothers as they are standing in the living room of their home holding what is believed to be the image of their father or older brother. The passage of time reveals the depth of grieving, of loss and introspection. The images speak to a universal experience of war and the role of photography in our culture.

Exposed (Sirte, Libyia, October 14th 2011, 11:20 am) 

The video footage in this battle scene in Sirte, Libya, shows rebel forces, wearing t-shirts as they fire repeated rounds from high caliber machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, or RPGs, with no clear indication if their ammunition has reached the targets.

Fallen (Mutassim- the fourth son of Gaddafi. Sirte, Libya, October 20th 2011, 5:50pm)

In this painting, rebel forces are viewing the body of the son of Col. Gaddafi, named Muttasim, after he was killed. In Photoshop, the artist combined multiple video stills of a chaotic moment when the body was first identified. The painting reveals how important the cellphone camera has become to bearing witness. The son's body appear ghostly as the silk layer shows an exposed chest, while the painted image of Mutassim taken moments later shows the blanket being pulled up over his chest giving a more dignified presentation of the body.

Third Story (Sirte, Libya, October 12th, 2011, 12:58 pm)

During the intense fighting in the fall of 2011 near Sirte, snipers played a prominent role. The sniper featured in this painting is rendered from video when he delivered a powerful speech in December 2011 at his alma mater Maquette University, where his call to public service was first instilled in him.

Urban Terrain (Downtown Sirte, Libya, October 15th, 2011, 8:25 pm)

As the fighting near Sirte raged on, the chaos of fire and rain was captured in this scene.

Cul-de-sac (Sirte, Libya, October 12th, 2011, 1:07 pm)

During the fighting in Sirte, Jim was extremely close to the action, and there are moments where you feel the adrenaline coursing through each frame. The image rendered here is from a video clip that reveals just how open and exposed the city is to the fighting. 

The classical architecture feels timeless and provides structure for the image as the reflection of the water inspires a pondering of the action. The silk layer shows one of the fighters holding the body of the fallen as they take cover. In this video, Jim is heard saying, "wow, that's accurate," as he is standing across the street. The intensity of the video clip contrasts sharply with the stillness of the painting.  

Dispersal (Waterfront, Sirte, Libya October 15th, 2011, 7:40 am)

Throughout the civil war in Libya, the flight response was confronting Jim at every turn. Image after image of rebel soldiers and civilians fleeing the artillery and tank fire from the government under Gaddafi.

At dusk from the battlefield, Jim captured the long light of late afternoon in Libya. The warmth of the sunlight stands in contrast to the intensity of the tank in the foreground and sporadic fighting as rebels fired machine guns mounted on Toyota pickup trucks.

Blood Soil (Approaching Sirte, Libya, October 8th, 2011)

This image reveals rebels closing in on Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown. It captures the sense of peril and the stark stakes of the revolution- a conflict that would topple Gaddafi's 40-year dictatorship over Libya at the hands of the very people that he had ruled with cruelty, torture, and fear.

Funeral (Maarat Al Noman, Syria, June 12th, 2012)

After the fall of Gaddafi, Jim turned the focus of his reporting on the civil war in Syria which was raging. It was the most dangerous place in the world for a journalist to be, and Jim was determined to be there to bear witness of what was going on. 

He was traveling with Nicole Tung, and about this image she wrote: "Demonstrators shout slogans as they carry the bodies

Group Prayer (Benghazi, Libya, March 17th, 2011)

As the forces arrayed against Col. Gaddafi in the Arab Spring, the rebels were motivated by many often conflicting forces. However, a deep vein that ran through the rebel fighters was their commitment to God and to their faith as Muslims. In this image from Benghazi, there is a layered group prayer which reveals the layers of solidarity coming together to confront the dictatorship of Gaddafi. 

Remembering Anton (The site of April 5th, 2011 capture, near Brega, Libya)

Ruins (Downtown Sirte, Libya, after the capture and killing of Muammar el Gaddafi. October 24th 2011, 5:30am) 

In the days after the death of Gaddafi, as the country began to celebrate a revolution and ponder a new future, there was an uneasy, quiet reflection amid the rubble. Jim labeled the sequence of footage he took at this time 

Rebels Praying in the desert, Libya (March 21st, 2011)

This scene of Libyan rebels praying in the desert was captured by Jim in video. He reflected on prayer in his field notes from his time in captivity, writing:

"I prayed as much as I could, kneeling with my fellow captives whether they were American Christians or Libyan muslims. The act of collective prayer and building faith in a higher power to guide me through the situation I could not control was perhaps the right attitude to locked prison cells and kangaroo courts. My patience and my faith that I'd be released was all I could control."

Born James Wright Foley on October 18, 1973 to John and Diane Foley, Jim was one of five children and a bright light that emanated at the center of the family with a mix of wanderlust, passion, faith and humor. Jim’s spirit and commitment to serving others lives on through the work of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. The foundation, headed by Diane Foley, has kept the spotlight on hostages and pushed the U.S. government and governments around the world to do more to help the families who are enduring or have endured seeing loved ones held hostage. 

Jim’s extraordinary life and his tragic death have also inspired a generation of reporters and editors  to work harder to ensure the safety of all journalists, particularly freelancers, reporting in the field at a time when the peril faced by journalists. It is a peril that is exceptionally grave for local reporters who are the most likely to be targeted and killed, often with impunity. Jim’s murder in 2014 came amid  the worst year in recorded history for attacks on journalists, and spurred the formation of an organization called A Culture of Safety (ACOS) which has established a new set of standards and practices for safety and protective measures to be followed by both freelance journalists in the field and the news organizations that assign them there.

Beyond the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation and ACOS, Jim’s spirit of humility and dedication to the craft of journalism live on. He set an example as a journalist passionately committed to service and to bearing witness to the people who suffer amid the horrors of conflict. Jim’s life and work still inspire a new generation of journalists to dedicate themselves to giving voice to the voiceless. And his violent death chastens the global community of media organizations to ensure the safety of all journalists doing their job in the field. 

SHOUT OUT: The Artist and The War Reporter James Foley

“I want my work to play the role of a memorial,” says McCallum, “to act as a public site of collective remembrance, and to reframe our view of Foley, to shift our focus from the graphic memory of his execution to the significance of his life and the stories he reported on.” (2017)

The project includes fifteen to twenty oil paintings (including large scales, and smaller scales) created in McCallum’s signature style; layering photographic silk scrim over oil paintings. The silk envelopes the painting and subtly obscures the image depicted on the canvas. This layering process produces a painting that is breathtaking and cinematic. 

In this project, McCallum transforms Foley’s journalistic archive into poetic works of which transcend to the politics of war and terrorism, furthermore, he emphasizes the essential role journalists obtain to speak up for and report on humanitarian struggles while acknowledging Foley's moral courage and profound sacrifices in the field.

Inescapable Truths: Work in Progress

Weights and Measures is made possible through the generous support of the following organizations:

National Endowment for the Arts (United States)

New York State Council on the Arts (United States) 

The High Commission of Canada (South Africa)

Including individual gifts and significant in-kind support of our partners in South Africa and beyond:

Southern Africa Litigation Centre (South Africa)

Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center (South Africa) 


Warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, during his trial at the International Criminal Court of New York. (Sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment)

Weights and Measures: Portraits of Justice investigates past and current cases of international crime and justice through collective social portraiture and civic dialogues.  

The title refers to a sense of being weighed down by the recurrence of atrocity but also measures approaches to justice, accountability for crimes, and the needs of victims and communities. 

In personalizing the offenders, victims, and justice communities through portraiture, the project aims to foster communication and empathy among everyone impacted by mass social conflicts and/or injustice. 

At the center of Weights and Measures are large-scale oil paintings or diptychs of defendants. The paintings are based on photographs of individuals as they appeared before international courts and tribunals. In active dialogue with the paintings are audio portraits or testimony from witnesses and victims who have been impacted by mass conflict, and color photographs of justice practitioners, who contributed significantly to international judicial initiatives. 

This collective social portrait and accompanying civic dialogues emphasize individual and collective accountability in the face of massive social injustice. 

Left: Nationalist - Slobodan Milosevic, standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (died in custody, trial terminated, after a photography by Raphael Gaillarde)

Right: Nationalist - Slobodan Milosevic, 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (died in custody, trial terminated, after a photo by Raphael Gaillarde)

Left: School Boy - Dominic Ongwen, standing trial at the International Criminal Court, January 28, 2015, first appearance, charged with seven counts of war crimes and Crimes against humanity, after photo by AFP)

Right: School Boy – Dominic Ongwen, 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Court, January 28, 2015, first appearance, charged with seven counts of war crimes and Crimes against humanity, after photography by AFP)

Left: Electoral Adversary - William Samoei Ruto, standing trial at the international Criminal Court (charged with murder, deportation or forcible transfer, charges vacated, after photography by Michael Kooren)

Right: Electoral Adversary - William Samoei Ruto, 'Reversal', standing trial at the international Criminal Court (charged with murder, deportation or forcible transfer, charges vacated, after photography by Michael Kooren)

Left: Commander - Vidoje  Blagojevic, standing trial at the international Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment, after a photography by Ed Oudenaarden)

Right: Commander - Vidoje  Blagojevic, 'Reversal', standing trial at the international Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment, after a photography by Ed Oudenaarden)

Left: Fugitive - Hissene Habre, , standing trial at the Extraordinary African Chambers (guilty of murder, torture, crimes against humanity, kidnapping, forced disappearance, and unlawful confinement, sentenced to life imprisonment, after video still from Human Rights Watch)

Right: Fugitive - Hissene Habre, 'Reversal', standing trial at the Extraordinary African Chambers (guilty of murder, torture, crimes against humanity, kidnapping, forced disappearance, and unlawful confinement, sentenced to life imprisonment, after video still from the Human Rights Watch)

Left: Simba - Germain Katanga, judgement hearing at the International Criminal Court (guilty of war crimes, sentence to 12 years' imprisonment, after a photograph by Armin Taslaman)

Right: Simba - Germain Katanga, 'Reversal', judgement hearing at the International Criminal Court (guilty of war crimes, sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, after a photography by Armin Taslaman)

Left: Butcher - Radovan  Karadzic, , standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment, after photograph by Valeria Kuypers)

Right:  Butcher - Radovan  Karadzic, 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment, after photography by Valeria Kuypers)

Left: Radio Host - Joshua Arap Sang, standing trial at the International Criminal Court (charged for murder, deportation and persecution, charges vacated, after a photograph by Lex van Lieshou)

Right: Radio Host - Joshua Arap Sang, 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Court (charged for murder, deportation and persecution, charges vacated, after photography by Lex Van Lieshou)

Left: President - Charles Ghankay Taylor, 'Reversal', standing trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment, after photograph by Peter de Jong)

Right: 'President - Charles Ghankay Taylor, 'Reversal', standing trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment, after photography by Peter De Jong)

Left: Freed Man - Callixte Mbarushimana, appearance before the International Criminal Court (charges not confirmed, released due to the sufficient evidence, after a photo by Jerry Lampen)

Right: Freed Man - Callixte Mbarushimana, 'Reversal', appearance before the International Criminal Court (charges not confirmed, released due to the sufficient evidence, after photography by Jerry Lampen)

Left: Brother Number Two - Nuon Chea, standing trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - "The Khmer Rouge Tribunal," (guilty of crimes against humanity and currently facing trial for genocide, after a photograph by Mark Peters)

Right: Brother Number Two - Nuon Chea, 'Reversal', standing trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - "The Khmer Rouge Tribunal," (guilty of crimes against humanity and currently facing trial for genocide, after photography by Mark Peters)

Left: Leopard - Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, standing trial at the International Criminal Court (charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, acquitted, after a photograph by Jerry Lampen)

Right: Leopard - Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Court (charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, acquitted, after photography by Jerry Lampen)

Left: President Charles Taylor (Special Court for Sierra Leone 2012, appearance, unknown photographer, guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes.)

Right: 'Reversal' President Charles Taylor (Special Court for Sierra Leone, 2012, appearance, unknown photographer, guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes.)

Left: Comrade Duch; Kang Kek lew (Extraordinary Chambers on the Courts of Cambodia – “The Khmer Rouge Tribunal”, December 5th 2008, after photography by Tang Chhin Sothy; guilty of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture.)

Right: 'Reversal' Comrade Duch; Kang Kek lew (Extraordinary Chambers on the Courts of Cambodia – “The Khmer Rouge Tribunal”, December 5th 2008, after photography by Tang Chin Sothy; guilty of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture)

Left: Final Defendant Ratko Mladic, standing trial at the international Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia (awaiting prosecution, after photograph by Serger Ligtenberg)

Right: 'reversal' Final Defendant Ratko Mladic standing trial at the international Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia (awaiting prosecution, after photograph by Serger Ligtenberg)

Left: Chairman Jean-Pierre Bemba, standing trial at the International Criminal Court (guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and witness tampering, sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment and fined 300,000 euros, after photography by Peter de Jong)

Right: Chairman Jean-Pierre Bemba (Profile), 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Court (guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and witness tampering, sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment and fined 300,000 euros, after photography by Peter de Jong)

Left: Khieu Rouge Samphan, standing trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - "The Khmer Rouge Tribunal" (guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide and grave violations of the 1949 Geneva Convention, sentenced to life imprisonment, after a photography by Mark Peters)

Right: Khieu Rogue Samphan, 'Reversal', standing trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - "The Khmer Rouge Tribunal" (guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide and grave violations of the 1949 Geneva Convention, sentenced to life imprisonment, after a photography by Mark Peters)

Left: Warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, standing trial at the International Criminal Court (gallery of war crimes, sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, after a photography by Jerry Lampen)

Right: Warlord - Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, 'Reversal', standing trial at the International Criminal Court (gallery of war crimes, sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, after a photography by Jerry Lampen)

Left: Bosniak Commander - Rasim  Delic, standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (guilty of failure to prevent or punish cruel treatment, sentenced to three years' imprisonment, died in custody, after a photograph by Peter de Jong)

Right: Bosniak Commander - Rasim  Delic, 'Reversal',standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (guilty of failure to prevent or punish cruel treatment, sentenced to three years' imprisonment, died in custody, after a photograph by Peter de Jong)

Zeid Bin Ra'ad Al-Hussein (Jordan), United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches 

Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi (Argentina), President of the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches   

Stella Ndirangu (Kenya) Program Manager, International Justice, International Commission of Jurists, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches   

Pieter De Baan (Denmark), Executive Director, Secretariat of the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches  

Fatou Bensouda (Gambia), Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches  

Mama Koite Doumbia (Mali), President of Platform for Women Leaders of Mali, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches

Don Ferencz (United States), Founder and Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches  

Athaliah Molokomme (Botswana), Former Attorney General of Botswana, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches    

Geoffrey Henderson (Trinidad and Tobago), Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches      

Fatiha Serour (Algeria), Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches        

Karim Khan (United Kingdom), International Criminal Defense Counsel, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches          

Angela Mudukuti (South Africa), Former Head of the International Criminal Justice Program at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches            

Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Judge at the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches              

Felipe Michelini (Uruguay), Member of the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court Trust Fund for Victims, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                

Elise Keppler (United States of America), Associate Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches     

Fergal Gaynor (Ireland), Legal Representative of Victims before the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches      

Chino Edmund (Nigeria), Chair of the Nigeria Coalition on the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches         

Alpha Sesay (Sierra Leone), Advocacy O cer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches           

Dato Shyamala Alagendra (Malaysia), Director of Global Victims Initiative, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches              

Fletcher Simwaka (Malawi), Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation Coordinator with the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches  

Amady Ba (Senegal), Head of International Cooperation at the International Criminal Court, Office of the Prosecutor, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches   

Xavier Jean Keita (Senegal), Principal Counsel at the Office for the Public Counsel for the Defence, International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches      

Silvia Fernandez De Gurmendi (Argentina), President of the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches      

William Schabas (Canada), Law Professor at Middlesex University and Leiden University, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches        

Richard Goldstone (South Africa), Former Judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches         

Motoo Noguchi (Japan), Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches           

Fatou Bensouda (Gambia), Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches              

Samuel Outlule (Botswana), Ambassador of Botswana to the Kingdom of Belgium and Head of Delegation to the European Union, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                 

Njonjo Mue (Kenya), Post Conflict Policy Advisor at The Redress Trust, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                   

Morten Bergsmo (Norway), Director of the Centre for International Law Research and Policy and Visiting Professor at Peking, C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                     

Paul Nsapu Mukulu (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Director of Ligue des électeurs (League of Voters), C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                       

Mark Harmon (United States of America), Former International Co-Investigating Judge, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                         

Theodor Meron (Poland), Former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), C-print photograph, 48 x 48 inches                           

Sorensen Center CUNY Law School - 2016 exhibit

On 21st November 2016, the WAYAMO Foundation organized a preview of Weights and Measures, Through the Looking Glass – Imagining the Future of International Justice, to open a dialogue on the challenges faced by international criminal justice. As a side-event to annual meeting of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP) the exhibition was accompanied by a panel discussion exploring the future of global accountability in the light of declaration of withdrawals of South Africa, Burundi and Gambia from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 

Weight & Measures

www.weightsandmeasures.org

"In this live pour, I intended to link performance and object, and to bridge my 1996 work; The Manhole Cover Project, of which cast 228 utility covers from 11,194 guns confiscated by the Connecticut law enforcement, to New Orleans in current effort of transforming weapons into art. During the performance, I smelted guns taken from the streets of New Orleans, along with gun shell casings, and poured the iron-infused brass into a sand-cast impression lifted from the pattern that was used in The Manhole Cover Project. Part alchemy, part historical reference, this transformation and symbolic tracing of a past work aims to remind us that the national conversation around gun violence and ownership has not changed. The object fabricated in this performance fused present with past- the metal disc made from the impression of 'The Manhole Cover' pattern was penetrated with firearms taken from the streets of New Orleans, to create a touchstone of which aims to contribute to the civic discourse concerning gun ownership active in this local community.

The epidemic of gun violence shaped urban cities in the 1990s and was a focus of my work for a decade, and is still active. The mothers who have lost children to gun violence twenty years ago are joined each year in small and large cities of equivalence. Our national policies stand without change, and even the most reasonable efforts to enact gun legislation are still facing huge obstacles. Our national attention attends focus momentarily when major tragic acts of violence are in the headlines, but for the thousands of families who have lost loved ones to gun violence and experience incarceration each year, the impact of this public health crisis continues to be felt. As artists we can contribute to this essential discourse and long-overdue change.”

Undertow: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives)  

While researching material for their Survey exhibition at the Buffalo State College Archives, the artists discovered accounts of the St. Augustine wade-in demonstration in Florida. 

In the summer of 1964, the city of St. Augustine became a battleground in the Civil Rights Movement. African American demonstrators held several nonviolent “wade-ins” at segregated hotel pools and beaches. One of the largest demonstrations took place at   St. Augustine Beach on June 25, 1964. 

Civil rights leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, came to northeast Florida to show their support for the movement. There were daily conflicts across the city as African-Americans took part in a number of nonviolent demonstrations, such as attempting to eat at a fancy waterfront restaurant, an act that landed King in jail. He is said to have remarked that St. Augustine was ‘the most segregated city in America’ at the time.

The St. Augustine Beach wade-in was the culmination of more than a week of such demonstrations but was easily the most violent. Police officers stormed the ocean, wielding batons and dragging African American demonstrators out of the water. Dozens were arrested.

The event served as a turning point in the civil rights movement, drawing national attention to the issue of segregation. The publicity surrounding these and other events hastened Congress’s actions, and just seven days after St. Augustine, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. 

Wade in the Water is inspired by this event, by the ocean as a metaphor of injustice, and by the protestors who remind us that we have to be brave enough to wade into it. The title also refers to a popular song of the Underground Railroad that was used by Harriet Tubman to encourage and convey coded information to escaping slaves as they moved along the various Underground Railroad routes.

Tow The Line: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives) 

Displacement: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives) 

As the Crow Flies: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives)

Undertow: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives)

In Extremis: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives)

Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range: (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives

Hand Over Fist: St. Augustine Beach Florida, June 20th, 1964 (After Unknown Photographer, Associated Press Wire, Buffalo State College Archives)

Sensitive content, deconstructed photography demonstrating traumatizing history of The Civil Rights Movement

After months of working on powerful and sensitive images from the Civil Rights Movement for their Whitewash paintings, McCallum began a process of deconstructing and reconstructing the same images in a new series of collages. He tore up, ripped, and shredded the original source photograph and recombined the fragments of different yet recognizable images. Using fine white cotton, the artist stitched the now fragile pieces together to form an incredibly vulnerable and traumatized representation of the body politic.  

Organized by the Contemporary Museum and the Maryland Institute College of Arts (2009)

Exhibit at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, Maryland (2009)

Evenly Yoked: Performance by McCallum & Tarry (2010) 

Performance by McCallum & Tarry (2010) - Visual representation of video art

Bearing Witness is a multi-venue survey of over a decade of work organized by the Contemporary Museum and the Maryland Institute College of Art's 2009 - 2010 Exhibition Development Seminar. This exhibition has a dual mission to present McCallum and Tarry's civic, community- and advocacy-based projects with their studio- and gallery-based video, painting and installation works. The shared theoretical underpinnings and art- historical context for these works have rarely been discussed. Given the powerful content of the work -- addressing such themes as urban violence, homelessness, race relations and representation -- there are meaningful connections between the works and Baltimore's local issues, institutions, histories, and communities.

Bearing Witness: Works by Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry

Cinematography, editorial: Gavin Rosenberg

Production: Ben Zimbric, Caleb Wertenbaker, Jacob A. Climer

Crew: Alexandr Skarlinski and Maryland Institute College of Art's Exhibition Development Seminar 2009-2010 students

Audio: Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in Harlem is Heaven (1932)

"In Evenly Yoked (2010), their latest collaborative video endeavor and part of the Projection series, McCallum and Tarry explore their relationship as an interracial couple, this time through the lens of a series of interconnected and historically bound narratives. Dressed intermittently as a contemporary couple on their wedding day, an aristocratic couple in the antebellum south, and a confederate soldier and a slave, the artists look at race relations on an intimate scale over time and across space. These three sets of roles permit McCallum and Tarry to investigate the tensions of their bond as well as the personal, cultural and historical challenges that have informed it as they embody these iconic characters and enact their experiences. Seamlessly shifting between the sentiments of brides and grooms on their wedding day, and the prickly power structures dictated by stereotypes of race and gender in the antebellum south, the artists negotiate the intense presence of the painful bonds and joyful distinctions inherent in their, and indeed all, conjugal relations. 

1.EVENLY_YOKED_FINAL_720p

The culmination of their interest in self portraiture and a conflation of the intimate and public histories that permeate their marriage, this newly commissioned work asserts an array of familiar binaries: white and black, master and slave, husband and wife, plantation owner and lady of the manor. As the artists oscillate between these guises, as well as their mutual love and struggle, they examine themselves and each other through carefully deployed mirrors—on stage and on the wall—occupying the ambiguous terrain of this connection. Facing one another across a dressing table, they reflect on their union and return to a premarital state in their relationship, playing out the most private of emotions before an empty theater. Architecturally framed by a literal stage, McCallum and Tarry transform themselves into thespian players in a precarious performance that reflects on the pleasures and pitfalls of union. In addition to period make-up and dress, McCallum and Tarry continue the theme of exchange seen in their earlier video works, literally putting on and taking off each other’s black and white make-up, conjuring highly charged images of vaudeville performers and circus clowns. Despite their self-consciously chosen outfits and mutually exchanged complexions, they remain at once separated not only by a divisive mirror but also by the very differences that draw them to one another, differences that inevitably surface no matter what their roles. Thus their clever costumes—elegant and celebratory nature of wedding clothes, the menacing constraints of a corset, and the unmistakable markings of military soldier and slave—enable the artists to look at one another as a means of looking within themselves as they embrace and negotiate the most difficult and universal of all human relations."

 Source: "Evenly Yoked." In Bearing Witness: Work by Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, edited by Jennie Hirsh, 22-23.  Baltimore, MD: Maryland Institute College of Art, 2010. 

For this project, McCallum and Tarry were interested in seeing how the images of the civil rights movement, that are an essential part of their cultural DNA, were presented in Japan. This point of departure, in turn, lead to the artists' discovery of the pivotal importance that 1968 had for Japan - as it did for so many other countries around the world. 

“Indelible Image” is about images of a specific country at a precise time that eerily echoes other struggles, of other people, in other lands, within a weirdly synchronistic world time frame. It is about a shared past, formatted in different grids, coded in different languages, and read in opposing manners. It is about the intersection of memory, time, and place.

The project emerged from an invitation to participate in the Tokyo Wonder Site Creator-in-Residence and the experience of a new cultural context. 

Gathering, 1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Strike: September 20, 1968 (The Yomiuri Shimbun Collection, National Diet Library)

Hairdresser,1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Ascension: April 27, 1968 (The Yomiuri Shimbun Collection, National Diet Library)

Japan Waterspray, 1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Shroud: April 5, 1968 (The Yomiuri Shimbun Collection, National Diet Library)

Suitcase Remnant (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Flight: February 15, 1968 (The Yomiuri Shimbun Collection, National Diet Library)

Preview: April 5, 1968 (The Yomiuri Shimbun Collection, National Diet Library)

A New Departure, 1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Triptych Remnant, 1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Disguise Remnant, 1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Idealistic Flame, 1968 (After unknown photographer; The Japan Times, National Diet Library Collection)

Research is an essential part of our creative process but this was our first experience working with a foreign archive and we allowed ourselves to be guided by our intuition, beginning with an initial idea but permitting ourselves to explore the other tributaries that inevitably emerge, as we deepen our research. 

We viewed thousands of images, made selections, refined these choices, and discovered the complex political and cultural significance of the images. We were particularly intrigued by images that connected with our personal experience, images of civic and political issues of the time period we were interested in, images that were part of popular culture and finally, by seemingly dormant images. Entering this vault of information and exploring its content permitted discoveries that enriched our creative process, our personal experiences, and our thinking about the geo political issues of the time.

Thus the series of paintings began as we stood in the vastness, that is the Tokyo National Diet Library, and began our research of Japanese newspapers from a known position, the dates surrounding Martin Luther King’s assassination. 

Working with a translator we were interested in seeing how the images of the civil rights movement, that are an essential part of our cultural DNA, were presented in Japan. This point of departure, in turn, lead to our discovery of the pivotal importance that 1968 had for Japan - as it did for so many other countries around the world. 

In the United States, 1968 was a bridge between the civil rights movement and the anti-war protest of the Vietnam War. In Japan, the youth movement also questioned environmental issues and the country’s quiet aid to the American government as they waged war in Vietnam. The images of student protesters clashing with police is both specific to actions of the individuals in the photograph but also represent an archetypal gesture of resistance mirroring those in Alabama, Chicago,Prague, Paris and Mexico.

The exhibition thus reactivates images from 1968 (a date characterized by young people and marginalized communities challenging authority locally and internationally) in a way that allows the images to be linked and de-linked from their original signifiers. Thus the “Indelible Image” is both bounded by the mark it has left and free to float above it.

The paintings are a composite of two layers of visual information that when viewed become subtly animated. The ground is an oil painting of the source image and just centimeters in front of this, above this surface, is the actual photographic image printed on transparent silk. The viewer looks through the silk screen onto the painted surface. 

The formal layering of the work culminates in a painting that mediates between the document, the event, the viewer and the interpretive possibilities that surround them. What has been closed, filed in an archive, is now open, animated by the viewer who ultimately shifts the relationships between the depths and the surfaces of the work.

We also found, as we sifted through catalogues of actual news photographs in the Japan Times Archives, that upon first viewing some of the images seemed abstract, benign and poetic but they were in fact loaded with cultural and political significance that we needed to carefully unwrap. One such photograph, an 8” x 10” black and white image of an island emerging majestically from the swirling pacific waves quietly referenced the ongoing Japan – US relationship and a history that has been shaped by struggle and displacement, ownership and repossession, surrender and reclamation. On the back of the photograph it was noted that the image was taken on the day that the US returned this strategic island to Japan as a quid-pro-quo agreement to silence protests against the USA’s use of the military base in Okinawa during the Vietnam War. We present this image on its own terms, aesthetics, melancholic and poetic.

Continuing our fascination with photographs taken as “evidence”, the images of a boot, an abandoned car, and a composite photograph of the robber, led us to the December 1968, 300 Million Yen Incident - a crime that to this day remains unsolved but is widely known in popular Japanese culture. In this instance our choice to create a series of paintings based on these images, was about our shared curiosity for this case, the radical success of the crime, and the traces and clues that remain captivating.

The Tokyo residence stimulated our creative process and expanded our awareness of the role we play in recreating narratives that question the American national agenda through images that were widely circulated in Japanese newspapers in 1968 for example. But it was also provided fertile ground for the critical questioning that lies at the heart of our artistic practice.

Stickup (After Foxy Brown, From the Projection Series)

"McCallum and Tarry’s new Projection series consists of rectangular, oil-on-linen paintings with the artists’ signature sheer silk overlay. The imagery for these pronounced but chromatically muted canvases stems from the artists’ archival research on film stills and photographs of stage performances, and thus offers a context for their newest video. The palette of these paintings is primarily black-and-white, with accents in varying skin tones; the introduction of color establishes depth and emotional space in the pictorial field. 

The Projection series explores the intersection of race and the entertainment industry by bringing to the fore a panoply of racial stereotypes propagated in theater and cinema from the 1920s through the 1970s. Reproducing canonical scenes and iconic characters drawn from minstrel shows, blaxploitation films and more contemporary performances provides an opportunity to expose not only the racial tensions at work within these narratives but also the ways in which reproducing these at times hyperbolic images offers the possibility of dismantling the prejudices that underpin them, pointing to racial difference as a cultural construction. The transparent silk stretched over the oil paintings creates the illusion of movement, which alludes to the structure of cinema itself. In other words, through McCallum and Tarry’s double structuring of the pictorial plane, these paintings become cinematic surfaces, and their subjects re-animated, as seen in Family Portrait I (after Imitation of Life, 1934) (2009) and Family Portrait II (after Imitation of Life, 1934) (2009). These images re-stage critical scenes in John M. Stahls’ Imitation of Life (1934), when a black single mother is confronted by her lighter-skinned daughter who, in trying to “pass” as white, rejects not only her racial background but also her mother’s love and affection.

The source material for Projection brings together theater, performance and cinema through works whose subject matter bridges the gap between those media. Iconic figures appear in a number of these canvases. For example, in Fashion Show (after Mahogany) and Reflection (after Mahogany), both from 2009, Diana Ross struts before a news kiosk loaded with periodicals that mirror her own image as an up-and-coming fashion designer and then on the runway itself. Likewise, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson appears in a number of canvases as a stage performer within films, such as Copasetic (after Bill “Bojangles” Robinson) (2009). These paintings exemplify the dynamic transformations enabled by Projection, from still images of films that crystallize the emotional crises of the narrative to “moving pictures” that challenge the limits of painting and reverberate with similar drama. The resulting images in Projection generate a contemplative, illusionistic forum in which history meets collective memory and nearly forgotten static images that can be revivified."

Source: "Projection." In Bearing Witness: Work by Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, edited by Jennie Hirsh, 24-25. Baltimore, MD: Maryland Institute College of Art, 2010. 

(after Live and Let Die, 1973, From the Projection Series)

(after, Imitation of Life, 1934, from the Projection Series)

(After Imitation of Life, from the Projection Series)