The Arts in New York City

I thought of the performance for a while and came to a thought. Hotel Cassiopeia reminded me of the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books by Lemony Snicket that I read once upon a time. Just like the books, Hotel Cassiopeia was disorganized and disoriented. The two works have much ambiguity in them, especially at the end. And both works can be better understood if you do research and read between the lines. I actually liked this production. It was something which I thought was a waste of time immediately after I watched it, but appreciated it more after I thought about it. there were some things that didn’t make sense in the beginning but gradually I began to see their importance, and there were things that didn’t make sense altogether. Some important aspects were
1. the mother and her indifferent relationship with Joseph Cornell
2. the desk in the center of the room. that desk was used for everything, and, I think it represents reclusiveness, since you don’t normally talk to people when you are doing work on your desk, and Cornell was known to be diffident. also from the desk, you could see the constellations which is what Cornell, supposedly saw in his own little world
3. the objects rising in air/Cornell lifting his arm to move them up and down represents the imagination of Joseph Cornell and the no gravity effect of the world he lived in, in space and the far away unknown galaxy
4. Cornell would ask “Is this how you always are?” trying to understand the human mind of his mother and the ballerina
5.The woman in the picture. I think that represents Lauren Bacall and the fact that she is a photograph is emphasizing that Cornell didn’t have good social skills and would talk to pictures in his imagination.
None of these statements can be proven or disproven since the entire film was half biography, half art but 100% the imagination of Joseph Cornell. That’s the beauty of it, that fact that there is no right or wrong.