Alice Briggs
Candide
Screen Print
16 x 22 inches
Edition of 50
Published by Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia.
In her print Candide, Alice Briggs gives viewers the haunting image of three satisfied and calm individuals having a tea party while completely disregarding the hellish figures that are longingly looking at them. Briggs describes the print as being a portrait of North America in action and, thus, a commentary on the state of affairs that exists today. The quote at the top reads, “having once maintained that everything went on as well as possible, he still maintained it, and at the same time believed nothing”; this describes the central figures who, like North American citizens, are seemingly unaware of the horrors that loom behind them. “American society is unaware that we have an isolationist view of things, yet we insist that everything is terrific as long as things like gas prices don’t go too high or interfere with our present circumstances,” she says. However, as an artist, Briggs wants her work to be suggestive and for people to form their own interpretations of her work. She adds, “I have learned more from viewers’ responses to my work than I have from my own work and ideas.”
Alice Brigg’s screen-print Candidecomments on isolationist attitudes among Americans who turn a blind eye to things that they don’t want to acknowledge or don’t affect them. Text at the top of the print reads, “Having once maintained that everything went on as possible, he still maintained it, and at the same time believed nothing.” The three subjects in the foreground of the composition seem to be willfully ignorant of the struggles of others.
—Adapted and excerpted fromhttps://serieproject.org/product/alice-briggs/, accessed 4-22-2022
