story, written on ice

story,

My story and yours
still separate, frozen
are starting to melt:
Letters flow away,
sentences gather in puddles…

Our story, one slow current,
trickles into new patterns,
seeps into the ground or evaporates
save for a bit of dust,
and falls down as rain, somewhere.

story, written on ice. photography. Ines Seidel
For the series of photographs “story, written on ice” I wrote on a bloc of ice with Indian ink. I chose two different fragments of German text, one from a family saga by John von Düffel, whose writing usually has to do with water. The other line is from a poem which is better known as the song “The miller’s joy is wandering”. Here are the translations:

Impossible to say, how often I thought of these rivers, how often I dreamt of them, how many nights I was drawn to them, when I was passing through sleeping towns, dry, riverless towns, on the search for water, on the search for the movement of water,(…). My translation from: John von Düffel “Vom Wasser” (On water).

The water teaches us to move, the water. From: Wilhelm Müller “Wandering”
story, written on ice. photography. Ines Seidel
story, written on ice. photography. Ines Seidell

hold us

may the story hold you and me. Ines Seidel
May the story hold me, may it be LARGE and bear all of me, may it last long enough to define my FEATURES.
May the story hold YOU, may it be LARGE and bear you, may it last long ENOUGH TO DEFINE your features.
MAY THE STORY hold you and me, may it be large AND BEAR US. May it last long enough to carve out our FEATURES. May it give US NAMES. MAY it be loose enough so we CAN SEE THROUGH IT. MAY IT BE DENSE ENOUGH TO HOLD US FOR A WHILE TOGETHER. MAY THE STORY HOLD YOU AND ME. May it hold us. May it hold you and me. May the story hold all of us.

May the story hold me, may it be large and bear ALL of me. May it last LONG ENOUGH TO DEFINE my features.
May the story hold you. May it be LARGE and bear all of you. May it last long enough to define your FEATURES.
May THE STORY HOLD YOU AND ME. May the story be large + bear all of US. May it last long ENOUGH to define our FEATURES. May it give us NAMES. May it be loose ENOUGH so we CAN SEE through it. May it be dense enough to hold US for a while together. May it HOLD US. May it hold YOU + ME. May it give US NAMES. MAY it carve out our features. MAY THE STORY HOLD ALL OF ME AND ALL OF YOU. May THE STORY HOLD ALL OF US. MAY IT HOLD US TOGETHER. May it last long enough to CARVE OUT OUR FEATURES.
may it be a good story.

text inside and outside of the bowl.

may the story hold you and me. Ines Seidel
bowl from wire and teabags, text written with ink; covered with wax.
head shapes from concrete made with sand, paper and cement; paint.
The sculpture is 18 cm in diameter and 9 cm high.
may the story hold you and me. Ines Seidel