Gezicht op Québec Garrison Club before 1894

Here we see Jules-Ernest Livernois' photograph of the Québec Garrison Club. The building looms, a monument to social order, yet my eye is drawn to the stacks of cannonballs, arranged in neat pyramids. These spheres echo ancient symbols of power and potential destruction, reminiscent of the precarious balance between order and chaos. Consider the recurring motif of the sphere. From ancient orbs of kingship to the apple of discord, it represents both unity and conflict. The cannonball stacks, then, are not merely military stores, but a visual metaphor for the tensions inherent in maintaining societal structures. These dark, heavy forms evoke a sense of suppressed anxiety, a reminder that civilization itself is built upon the potential for violence. The image resonates with a primal fear, a collective memory of societal collapse that transcends time and culture. Like the ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail, the image speaks to the cyclical nature of history, where stability and turmoil endlessly chase one another.