Lynne Cohen
Severance
April 29 – May 27, 2023
Lynne Cohen has been gone for almost a decade and yet, here in 2023, the strangeness of her scenes has become more prolific than ever. Abandoned boardrooms, lunchrooms, cubicles presided over by thirsty ferns, corporate ant hills devoid of workers: Cohen’s photographs exposed the absurd nature of these empty spaces long before a global pandemic made them commonplace. Is it any wonder that when Ben Stiller sought to define the look and feel for his tv show ‘Severance’ he turned to the works of Lynne Cohen to inspire his atmosphere of static and uncomfortable negative space?
As we emerge from our caves back into the fluorescent light of the workplace, returning to these formerly familiar halls has been a confusing and foreign process. We are greeted by Cohen’s alien environments, bizarre after years of blazers-over-boxers on Zoom in the snuggled comfort of the duvet-desk. We once built these places for ourselves, on purpose. Who were we then? Will we ever recognize those people again? We search each image for a spinning chair, a steaming cup of coffee, for proof of life. “It is I,” chimes the jarring notification in our linked calendars, “another unnecessary all-hands meeting at 10:30…in person.”
This exhibition coincides with Lynne’s exhibition “Laboratories/observatories” at Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) and the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival (Toronto).
Opening Reception
April 29, 2023 2:00 pm – 5:00 pmArtist Links
Included Artworks
