Evenly Yoked?
Though I enjoy the experience of visiting art exhibitions, I’m not necessarily the type of exhibition-goer who understands every presentation. I’m usually mingled in with the crowd who’s staring at the masterful displays with sheer enjoyment, thrill, admiration…and confusion. The classic, head-turned-to-the-side, squint-eyed stare and utterance of “I don’t get it” seems to accurately summarize my exhibition experiences.
So naturally, my expected reaction to “Evenly Yoked: Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry Exhibit” mirrors that of my previous art encounters. The atmosphere of the exhibition, perhaps because of its location, proves my initial expectations to be correct. Fittingly arranged in the drafty, spacious and somewhat oddly lit mahogany room that is the Spelman College Fine Arts Museum, “Evenly Yoked”, the latest video conquest by creative duo Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, evokes a somewhat unsettling atmosphere for visitors. And appropriately so.
Presented alongside the real-life couple’s preceding artistic endeavors such as Bloodlines (2007) and Whitewash (2006-2009), “Evenly Yoked” is an exhibition that confronts those issues most important to the Brooklyn-based twosome. As reflected by the choice of mixed media (in the forms of oil on canvas with toner on silk screens and varying forms of video installations), McCallum and Tarry seek to confront the intricate structure of not only their interracial marriage but also their art.
Somber hymns set the stage for McCallum and Tarry to explore the race relations that have such large impact on their work and artistic aesthetic. Given the couple’s unique perspective, it is surprising that those issues confronted in “Evenly Yoked” were, well, anything but. The majority of the works presented in Spelman College’s Fine Art’s Museum cater to only one particular audience affected by the four hundred plus years of racial and social injustice in America. The preponderance of paintings showing favoritism towards representing the sole experience of Blacks during times of great social and racial radicalism such as the Civil Rights Movement discredits the exhibit’s name and ought to challenge exhibition-goers’ opinion of the talented twosome.
The exhibits main attraction is the video installation entitled “Evenly Yoked”. Following three different interracial relationships, “Evenly Yoked” explores the tensions shared in an interracial relationship in the form of an antebellum couple, what is assumed to be a high society, intellectual couple and one couple sitting on stage. What is most impressive about the videos is their ability to not only address the undoubted friction and opposition that is inherent in interracial relationships but also discussing those very same conflicts in a societal context. The dynamic of McCallum and Tarry’s characters’ relationships comment on the greater inequalities that their images from Bloodlines and Whitewash so eloquently capture. The very same terror and panic marked “Attacked by Police Dogs, Birmingham, Alabama 1963” (2007) is made palpable in “Evenly Yoked”’s latter couple on stage by the trepidation and unease expressed in the faces of McCallum and Tarry as they disturbingly whip the others’ skin color (in the form of stark white and glossy black) from their cheerless faces. These two pieces in particular marry the seemingly two different messages communicated by the artists. One speaks to the unsettling fear and brazen discrimination still felt by Blacks as a people in the US. The other critiques this battle amongst us all to literally try being in someone else’s skin. Together, “Attacked by Police Dogs” and “Evenly Yoked”’s third couple appear to communicate the sort of racial equilibrium sought after by McCallum and Tarry throughout the entire exhibit. A contrast between immense fear and barbarism, and a more modern weary acceptance.
Nonetheless, other overpowering aspects within the exhibit that perpetuated a biased representation of racism impair this balanced effort. While one could understand why Blacks’ distinct viewpoint on racism is an unquestionably valid topic for an exhibit, it becomes unclear as to why McCallum and Tarry stress the importance of their perspective as an interracial couple? Why not make this one of their many solo exhibitions in which Tarry’s point-of-view as a Black woman might be more cohesive? Judging by the poignant yet partial images swallowing, I mean, surrounding “Evenly Yoked”, it is clear that the couple should have more acutely edited their exhibition-worthy images as to incorporate some depicting an experience other than Blacks’.
After coming to see Evenly Yoked with the idea that the exhibition’s title would accurately indicate its substance and subject matter, I was, to my own dismay, wrong. This in no way discredits the compelling images that I, surprisingly, was able to understand sans head-cock and eye-squint. However, it does discredit the pair’s ability to create a unified, amalgamated exhibition for their audience. Perhaps the task of joining elements from so many different exhibitions contributed to the overall segmented message of the exhibit (Were the selected images from Bloodlines and Whitewash supposed to supply context to the video installations?). Or maybe, given the context of the Fine Arts Museum’s mission to “focus on art by and about women of the African Diaspora”, the artists felt obligated to incorporated images that would meet that objective. However, disconnect aside, “Evenly Yoked” provided the forum for an interesting, thought provoking visual discussion of race that, hey, I actually got…sort of.
