Description
At first glance, the works from the Whitewash series appear ephemeral and poetic. Using photographs mined from the archives of various national collections taken during the 1950s and 60s, closer examination reveals the tension and violence of the Civil Rights Era. McCallum and Tarry have painted the images on canvas with printed silk stretched over the surfaces. The works read as our memories, the communities and events becoming illusive and more subtle over time. In their video project, Cut, the artists themselves are shown in the process of cutting each other’s hair. Instead of the comfort of a barber’s chair or the use of fine scissors, the artist’s instead are revealed half dressed in a seemingly vast, dilapidated room, using only a small razor blade to remove their hair. Their actions are unsettling and rough at one moment, gentle and erotic the next, leaving a work that is “sexually charged, racially fraught and emotionally complex...”
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