Aftermath 1917

Editor: This small etching, "Aftermath" by Arthur Bowen Davies, features figures in a shallow space. It feels like a memory, dreamlike and fragile. What social structures do you think this piece speaks to? Curator: Considering Davies’s era, I see a critique of societal constraints placed on the body, particularly the female body. The figures, though seemingly free in movement, are confined within this almost tomb-like frame. Do you see a tension between freedom and confinement? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yes, there is that tension. The figures seem to be struggling, and that shape encloses them. Curator: Exactly. Davies was working during a time of significant social upheaval and changing roles for women. The figures, perhaps, embody this struggle for liberation within existing power structures. Seeing it this way, the title "Aftermath" gains a sharper edge, right? Editor: It does. Thanks, that really reframes my understanding of it!