Evidence Of Things Not Seen

(2008)

Artist collaborative Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry’s collective social portrait, Evidence of Things Not Seen, shines a spotlight on the unsung heroes of the civil rights protests in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Known as the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating in the 1950s. Led by Dr. Martin Lurther King, the protest is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation in which he emerged as a prominent national leader of the civil rights movement while also solidifying his commitment to nonviolent resistance. 

McCallum and Tarry’s striking group of one hundred and four paintings pay homage to those who were arrested, photographed, and charged by Montgomery police; each painted portrait is based on the police mugshots. In the hands of the artists, their mugshots are transformed into beautiful portraits of individual and collective social responsibility and political action.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen was commissioned by and shown in the New Orleans African American Museum as part of the inaugural biennial exhibition, Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008. Produced by Conjunction Arts.    

Currently the Evidence of Things Not Seen portraits are on long-term exhibition at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, where it lives in lively dialogue with the history it illuminates and the social justice mission of the EJI.