A playful trip around the world, through its fabrics and textiles and their place in a busy international market.
Colors, patterns and textures all have their places within a global society. How we interweave our lives to balance their trajectory is just a part of daily living. The fact that Jodie Mack has painstakingly developed a film that pulls the colors, shapes, and textures into a sixty-one-minute story with no apparent narrative both narrows and widens her capacity as an artist.
With no introduction, the film displays a vast array of luggage within luggage, filled with what appears to be a multitude of colorful fabrics that are vibing to an incredible beat encompassing loads of musical energy. Before we can decide what that means, an influx of colorful objects move to an upbeat tone by various modes of transportation including planes, trains, and boats. A recurring theme of maps and globes, codes and conveyors symbolizes travel and a universal functionality of symbolism. The textured and patterned objects show detail and structure that seemingly travel through time and space for every reason and without any reason. While at times it appears that some of the objects are redundant, they seem to have a different purpose every time they are presented. With that said, the entire film is subject to interpretation, albeit colorful interpretation.
In the end, I realize that I have become blissfully bored while my eyes feel painfully strained. The beautiful pieces of colorful remnants and fully functional pieces are indeed worthy to be called art and the background music, when playing fast, helps to move the objects further to their destination of what appears to be solidarity in the midst of conformation. While I certainly respect the free-form development that brings the objects to life, I have yet to grasp the closure of putting it all together to make it feel sensible and entertaining.
“The Grand Bizarre” recently premiered at the 2019 Oak Cliff Film Festival
