Chelsea Hotel No.2

Overview

Da Corte found inspiration in Leonard Cohen's music, particularly the 1974 song "Chelsea Hotel #2," after which he named his breakthrough video in 2010. Filmed on a cellphone, Chelsea Hotel No. 2 takes place against a white backdrop that highlights the vibrant colors of random objects and foodstuffs Da Corte manipulates in front of the camera. His hands—covered in flour, ground coffee, sequins, packing tape, or aluminum foil—enter and exit the frame to perform a series of bizarre tasks. He stacks and presses slices of bread, squeezes purple dish soap into a neon green hamper, peels a banana with a gold hoop, rolls a calla lily into green bubble wrap, cuts bologna with large rusty scissors, and paints unripe cherries with red nail polish. We also see a gilded head of lettuce sprouting a rose on top of an overturned yellow basket and the fall of a standing broom and a blue chair as one of its legs is pulled out.

Alex Da Corte