Celebrating Historic Artwork As Drugs [TIFF]

“The Color of Ink” may be one of the effortlessly stunning documentaries I’ve ever watched — by means of Johnson’s eyes, cliff faces, ocean sunsets, and metropolis streets are simply as stunning because the art work celebrated all through. Vivid, expressive pictures power you to confront the nuances, imperfections, textures, and pure spirit of the world round us. Nice consideration is paid to capturing the processes as a lot as doable, whether or not it’s Jason Logan gathering supplies from the woods, or tattoo artist Roxx engaged on a chunk, wiping away droplets of blood and ink off her shopper’s pores and skin. It is a surprisingly tactile movie (so many pictures of Logan spreading ink along with his fingertips!) and that actually forces the viewer to confront the hassle behind the craftsmanship and art work. As Logan tells Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, he creates “dwelling ink” — it isn’t as steady or dependable because the stuff you purchase at Walmart, however that is the entire level. It is distinctive. It adjustments. It is “alive.” 

The movie is full of pleasant imagery that’s consistently reinforcing themes of pure grandeur and human surprise, juxtaposed with deeply private and intimate moments. In a single scene, a girl stands in an outdated marble quarry, her tiny body flanked by two large partitions of straight white stone. Within the subsequent, Logan quietly sits at his cozy in-home workstation, mixing the marble powder right into a shiny white ink. Later, we get to see classically skilled Islamic calligrapher Soraya Syed utilizing the specifically made white ink for a venture steeped in her Arabic heritage. This journey from awe-inspiring nature to particular person craftsmanship to art work as spirituality is a sample repeated all through “The Color of Ink,” and the message is obvious: humankind is so small within the grand scheme of issues, and artwork helps us keep grounded. Artwork connects us to our previous and our future. Artwork is medication. 

Ink is part of our human historical past — virtually in our DNA — however due to trade and mass manufacturing, we have misplaced contact with that a part of ourselves. In 2022, with the rise of soulless, deeply ugly NFTs and fears about AI Artwork Turbines displacing designers, it feels so prescient to take a step again and have a look at one thing all of us take with no consideration day by day: the colour of ink. 

/Movie score: 8.5 out of 10