Alex Da Corte’s immersive works testify to an act of magnetic world-making. He choreographs a dance of objects that signify and imply, without being those things. He tells stories through codes and symbols, in which a whirlwind of appropriated, assembled, staged, and crafted Americana is infused simultaneously with high- and low-brow cultural references and dollar-store finds.
On the one hand, in the Arsenale, the neon-lit Rubber Pencil Devil, miniaturises the viewers as they sit on benches and watch over-sized and over-saturated adult versions of familiar TV programmes in which a range of characters perform a hypnotically slow choreography.
On the other hand, in the Central Pavilion, viewers become giants watching people live their quiet lives inside the homes of The Decorated Shed (2019), an exact replica of a miniature suburban American village – from the popular television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – presented on a Federal-style mahogany table, with the addition of corporate restaurant chain signage.
