Whitewash

This series of paintings, photographs, and drawings is based on historical images from the Civil Rights Movement, and considers how race is passed on through the legacies of family and social history, through place, genetic memories, blood lines, and images.

David Spalding, a critic and curator based in Beijing writes:

”In Whitewash, McCallum and Tarry take the past upon themselves and quite literally, using their bodies as screen onto which viewers project the fading, urgent histories of American race relations. If the details of these histories are eroding, their power continues to mediate even our most intimate relationships. As Whitewash suggests, if we actively recover the past and consider the ways we embody it, we can begin to forge the futures we imagine.” *

*David Spalding, 2006, "Enlivening Memories, Embodying Histories: Uncovering the Promise of Whitewash”

An Essay by David Spalding: Enlivening Memories, Embodying Histories: Uncovering the Promise of Whitewash