VIDEO LOVE: JAVIER PEREZ’S “EN PUNTAS”

Halloween is around the corner and that means we are embracing all things creepy – much like this video. Javier Peréz mixes sculpture, performance and video in his latest piece. He takes a ballerina, Amélia Ségarra, places her in knife-led pointe shoes, and proceeds to have her dance atop a grand piano. Trying to stay balanced, Ségarra scrapes and digs the knife points into the piano creating a bone chilling soundtrack.

 While ballet is usually viewed as delicate and beautiful, Perez uses it to display contradictions of human nature: fragility//strength, life//death, beauty//violence. The balancing act between them — as emulated by Amélia — at times can be beautiful, if not simultaneously agonizing and ruthless. The three minute short film makes you anxious, nervous, and enthralled every second.