Untitled (chimp performing tricks on unicycle) c. 1950

Curator: Oh, the glamour and melancholy! Editor: Indeed. We’re looking at an untitled photograph by Jack Gould, part of the Harvard Art Museums’ collection. It depicts a chimpanzee performing tricks on a unicycle. Curator: What strikes me is this strange sense of performance, the artifice of the painted backdrop, the hopeful, yet slightly desperate, stance of the chimp. It’s a poignant commentary on entertainment itself, isn’t it? Editor: Absolutely. And think about the labor involved—the making of the set, the training of the animal. It's all part of this complex web of production and spectacle. Curator: Yes, a strange beauty in that labor. Editor: Precisely. It makes you consider who benefits, and at what cost. It makes it strangely beautiful. Curator: A final spin of the wheel for thought, then.