Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry

Generational place, genetic memory, blood lines, the space between memory and photography. Where is our place within the legacy of our parents?


Through the use of painting, photography, and drawings, which reference images from the Civil Rights Movement, we investigate the impact of race in America and its effect on our intimate relationship. In a 2006 essay titled "Enlivening Memories, Embodying Histories: Uncovering the Promise of Whitewash," 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." 

The first paintings in the Whitewash series were shown at F2 Gallery in Beijing in 2006. The artists continued to explore the relationship between history and memory through this unique combination of media for the next 3 years, resulting in an expansive body of work.