Untitled (chimp playing the piano) c. 1950

Curator: This delightfully peculiar 6 x 6 cm photograph, currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums, is simply titled "Untitled (chimp playing the piano)" by Jack Gould. Editor: My first thought? The inverted tones give it a dreamlike, almost nightmarish quality. A surreal commentary on performance, perhaps? Curator: Exactly. There's a deeply unsettling element when we view animals aping human behavior, particularly within the context of entertainment. Zoos, circuses... Editor: Precisely. This image invites us to reflect on the colonial gaze and the exploitation of non-human beings for human amusement. It speaks to the larger power structures at play. Curator: And yet, there's a strange joy in it too. I can't help but wonder about the chimpanzee's perspective, if it found even a sliver of... expression in those keys. Editor: Perhaps that’s a dangerous romanticization. We risk overlooking the systemic cruelty inherent in these spectacles. Curator: Perhaps you are right, but this little image still makes me laugh a bit.