...and if the King was to find it out
Artist Statement
One of Lewis Carroll's most well-known works, "Alice's adventures in Wonderland", is usually first perceived as a fantasy novel. However, it contains an extraordinary number of references to diverse domains of our lives, such as meaning and purpose, exploration, art, political and social issues, and more. Chapter VIII, The Queen's Croquet-Ground, provides one of such profound social/political references. Here, one can see the gardeners of Queen of Hearts painting the white roses on the trees red. When confused Alice asks them why they are doing it, the gardeners keep quiet until one of them says, "Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know" (Carroll, 2005). One interpretation of this scene is that it depicts the desperate attempts of the folks to save their heads from being cut off by the tyrant at any cost, even when the solution is as irrational and ridiculous as painting white roses red.Both surprisingly and terrifyingly, this scene from an imaginary world repeats itself yet in reality. Following Vladimir Putin's decision on invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, thousands of people in Russia went out to the streets to express their sharp disagreement with the President's actions, using the "HeT Boiitte" (No to War) slogan. As it happens every time, the peaceful protests were extinguished by violent arrests and the passage of laws prohibiting the spread of "fake" information (Pazzanese, 2022), including calling the state of events a war rather than a "special military operation" (Al Jazeera, 2022). One of the glaring events of the pushback against the protests in Saint Petersburg was caught on camera:
As ridiculous as painting already grown roses seems, these workers are painting the ice on which people wrote the slogan of the protests “Нет Войне” (No to War). In the light of the current events, the “... and if the King was to find it out” illustration is an attempt to apply Carol’s scene to the modern political realm. In our illustration of this scene, the workers painting the ice represent the card gardeners feverishly covering what might cost them their lives. The color choice is not random; the red paint symbolizes the atrocities of war. However, the roses are white regardless of the paint one puts on them. People in Russia want peace regardless of the absurd efforts to hide it.
While our take on the scene might seem politicized, one can argue that the symbolism and parallels with political figures within the novel might allow to characterize it as a political satire (Millican, 2011). Carol explains their vision of the Queen of Hearts as “a blind and aimless fury” guided by uncontrollable passions (Hornbakelibrary, 2016). This description suits well with the irrational threats of nuclear war made by the Russian president (Ignatius, 2022).
Not surprisingly, numerous examples of unfounded decisions and sentences force the workers to cover the ice on the river with paint. “Why the fact is, you see, … if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know” (Carroll, 2005). In our case, it is the King.
