Schattensteine
Keramik | 0,15 m–0,60 m |2020
"It had something to do, certainly, with what I was trying to discover and, also, trying to avoid. If I was trying to discover myself – on the whole, when examined, a somewhat dubious notion, since I was trying to avoid myself – there was, certainly, between that self and me, the accumulated rock of ages. This rock scarred the hand, and all tools broke against it. Yet there was a me, somewhere: I could feel it, stirring with and against captivity. The hope of salvation – identity – depended on whether or not one would be able to decipher and describe the rock.
One song cries, „lead me to the rock that is higher than I,“ and another cries, „hide me in the rock!“ and yet another proclaims, „I got a home in that rock.“ Or, „I ran to the rock to hide my face: the rock cried out, no hiding place!“
The accumulated rock of ages, deciphered itself as a part of my inheritance – a part, mind you, not the totality – but in order to claim my birthright, of which my inheritance was but a shadow, it was necessary to challenge and claim the rock. Otherwise, the rock claimed me.
Or, to put it another way, my inheritance was particular, specifically limited and limiting: my birthright was vast, connecting me to all that lives, and to everyone, forever, but one cannot claim the birthright without accepting the inheritance."
(James Baldwin, „Notes of a Native Son”, 1955)
One song cries, „lead me to the rock that is higher than I,“ and another cries, „hide me in the rock!“ and yet another proclaims, „I got a home in that rock.“ Or, „I ran to the rock to hide my face: the rock cried out, no hiding place!“
The accumulated rock of ages, deciphered itself as a part of my inheritance – a part, mind you, not the totality – but in order to claim my birthright, of which my inheritance was but a shadow, it was necessary to challenge and claim the rock. Otherwise, the rock claimed me.
Or, to put it another way, my inheritance was particular, specifically limited and limiting: my birthright was vast, connecting me to all that lives, and to everyone, forever, but one cannot claim the birthright without accepting the inheritance."
(James Baldwin, „Notes of a Native Son”, 1955)
Schattensteine
Keramik | 2020 | Foto: Robert Vanis
Schattensteine
Keramik | 2020 | Foto: Robert Vanis