On the Edge
Miguel Ángel Ríos's video projection On the Edge is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through the month of September. Projected in the Museum's expansive Cullinan Hall, the video continues themes from the artist's 2003 installation A morir ('til Death), which shows a group of black tops spinning and colliding with each other.
From the MFAH:
"The allegory of life and death skillfully and creatively plays out in On the Edge. This 2005 video offers a sense of refinement and control, the allegory pushed up against the classic specter of black and white. Unlike A morir, which was filmed in a single take, On the Edge is more complex and controlled in its choreography. In some instances, the tops function as actors and seem to have prescribed roles and movements. The use of multiple cameras allows a seamless interplay of motion—a white top, for example, gliding gracefully in front of a row of black tops in single file.
Rios likes to think that a successful work always bears an element of risk, danger, or impossibility. On the Edge undeniably fulfills these criteria as it plays out the uncertainty and brevity of human life in a beautifully abstract and skillful way."
http://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/past/miguel-angel-rios-edge/