Macalister

For over a decade, Cristián Silva has been observing the social uses and readings of tartan patterns. The tartan was originally a symbol of common ancestry and nobility in the Scottish Highlands. Since then, it has adopted a number of different and often contradictory uses, from chic boutiques to low-cost mass production. In this video we see a homeless man in Guadalajara, Mexico, protecting himself from the rain with a cheap, dirty old blanket. The tartan on his blanket is derived from the Macalister Clan, the history of which is told on the screen. Silva poetically exposes the process of globalization, as seen through this abstract-but politically charged-fabric.