Exchange

video, 2007

Exchange quietly refers to the “One Drop Rule” in which a person with as little as one drop of black blood in their heritage was considered “colored.” Originally endorsed as a way to increase the slave population in the United States, the rule directly lead to laws prohibiting miscegenation. Through the action of ritual blood transfer and the merging of historical sound: slave testimony, police footsteps charging “Freedom Summer” marchers and politicians denying the existence of murdered civil rights workers we navigate ideas of blood as taint and stain, as an agent of healing, as pact and purity, Eucharist and memory.

BloodlinesExchange, and a selection of paintings from Whitewash (2006-2009) are on show through July 31st, 2010 at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore as part of McCallum Tarry's first mid-career solo show, Bearing Witness: Work by Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry. For more information on the show's multiple venues, please visit the Featured page. 
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