Miguel Angel Ríos’s Sanctuary design borrows imagery from his powerful 2015 film Endless. The film, which he shot over four months in Mexico, takes the viewer over and through narrow passageways lined by dense, thorny walls of huisache, Mexican sweet acacia. The trek between the brambles is ominous and threatening, yet remaining on the straight and narrow keeps the traveler safe. The overhead view—depicted on the rug—emphasizes the density of the walls, the darkness of the passage, and the relief of rising above the fray. “I make visible the violent moment in which we live, where we feel that life has no value,” the artist explains. “It is competition, power, violence, and chaos. The viewer may choose to identify with the powerful or with the vulnerable.”
