Café c. 1928 - 1929

Editor: Here we have Edward Burra's woodcut print, Café. It's a striking image, full of bold contrasts and stylized figures. What symbols or cultural echoes do you see in this piece? Curator: The stark black and white draws my eye to the faces, each bearing unique markings—a star, a grid. Consider these not merely as decoration, but as coded identities, markers of belonging, perhaps even social commentary. Do these symbols evoke any particular historical or cultural context for you? Editor: I hadn't thought of them as coded identities before, but now that you mention it, the symbols do seem to hint at a deeper narrative. Curator: Burra often played with archetypes and visual languages, reflecting anxieties and fascinations of his time. We might ask ourselves, how does this cafe scene become a stage for something more profound? Editor: I see it now; these aren't just people in a café. They're symbols interacting in a culturally rich, albeit ambiguous, space. Curator: Precisely. It's a space where the familiar becomes strange, and the mundane, meaningful.