Rationale

Rationale

I chose to present my triptych as a loop, to mirror the cyclical and repetitive nature of the song. I decided to represent Hotel California as a statement on cosmetic surgery, mostly due to the lines, “we are all just prisoners here/ of our own device”. It seemed to me that it was a line about willingly trapping oneself in a vicious cycle, and in this case, the vicious cycle of trying to improve one’s looks.

The first sequence is based on the lyrics “stabbed it with their steely knives/ but they just can’t kill the beast”. There was a discussion on what knives could represent, and from knives we went to scalpels and from there another step to needles. To me, the lyric meant that you could inject as much botox as you could into yourself, but that it would never satisfy the basic insecurities you had about yourself.

The second sequence is based on the line “we are all just prisoners here/ of our own device”. It shows a parade of people going through a revolving mirror and ending up on the other side all looking the same. It’s about how people just keep trying to change how they look in order to suit society’s standards, and in the end lose what they really look like.

The third sequence is based on the line “there she stood in the doorway/ I heard the mission bell”. In this case the “she” is referring to the nurse, motioning in a kind of sinister welcome. I thought it would be an appropriately creepy way to end the triptych.