Comb c. 1940

Editor: This is Irene Lawson’s “Comb,” a watercolor drawing from around 1940. It feels very straightforward, a simple, almost clinical depiction of an everyday object. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The seeming simplicity is deceptive. Lawson, by focusing on such an intimate object, invites us to consider its social and historical context. A comb isn't just a comb, is it? It speaks to notions of grooming, appearance, and by extension, identity, particularly concerning gender and class. What does it mean to depict *this* particular comb? Is its material significant, mimicking tortoiseshell perhaps hinting at luxury and the social performance attached to it? Editor: That's interesting; I hadn't thought of it that way. I guess I was seeing it more from a purely formal perspective – the shape, the detail of the coloring, the play of light. Curator: Exactly, but formal choices always have a *why* behind them, don’t they? The careful realism prompts us to ask why Lawson chose to represent it this way. Was she perhaps engaging in a quiet act of defiance by immortalizing something so quotidian during a period of significant social upheaval? Editor: I suppose so! It does seem to elevate the ordinary, almost in the style of a still life painting... so, by choosing such an unassuming item, she might have been making a statement about the value inherent in everyday life and challenging existing hierarchies? Curator: Precisely! Lawson is positioning this domestic object within the wider social fabric. And by asking us to look closely, she asks us to reflect on the very act of looking, and what we choose to value and preserve. Editor: Wow, I'll never look at a comb the same way again! Curator: Nor should you! Art has the power to transform our perspectives, prompting critical engagement with the world around us.