Living Room with "T.V. Aquarium", Ramsayville, Ontario 1975

Curator: Lynne Cohen's black and white photograph, "Living Room with "T.V. Aquarium", Ramsayville, Ontario" from 1975, presents us with a quietly unsettling domestic interior. What strikes you first about this image? Editor: The stillness, definitely. It's a staged calm, but slightly off. The repetition of rectangular forms almost lulls you, but then…there’s something a little sinister lurking. Curator: The composition emphasizes these angular forms: the armchair, a rocking chair, a small sideboard and the… "T.V. Aquarium." Let’s consider Cohen's deliberate placement of objects in a presumably found setting. It brings to mind a very banal and standardized North American design, perhaps aimed at domestic bliss but clearly failing. Think of the labor and the industry that went into producing all these objects –the furniture, the wallpaper, even the aquatic fantasy contained within the television. Editor: That horse tapestry looms large. Horses, of course, symbolize freedom, power, and even virility across cultures. Their prominent display here seems deliberately ironic in contrast with the suffocating atmosphere of the room. A symbol of untamed nature confined indoors. What are they watching on the T.V. –are they also captive? Curator: Exactly, the question becomes: is that tapestry mass produced, and consumed, to symbolize these aspirations. The 'T.V. Aquarium' suggests further alienation – even leisure here becomes mediated, manufactured. One mass-produced object contains other commodified products. Editor: The black and white further strips any warmth, doesn't it? Drains any sense of comfort one might typically associate with a living room. And consider the cultural connotations of the colors themselves. Are we in a purgatorial domestic space devoid of emotion? Curator: I think it speaks to the material realities behind the myth of the ideal modern home and leisure time. This photo reminds us how cultural products— tapestries or 'aquarium TVs' — reflect consumer culture in this period, masking anxieties in the production, consumption, and presentation of this home space. Editor: This makes me question the power dynamics inherent to display. The image certainly asks, whose reality, whose dreams are projected in the 'living room' displayed in Cohen’s lens. Curator: A potent question. Thank you. Editor: Indeed. Food for thought!