Sea Ice

1990

American, born 1953

An image of the artist’s brother is submerged in the watery depth of this print. She took the original photograph when she was ten, in June 1963, as the family was playing at Gleneden Beach on the Oregon Coast. Krieg explains, “I added a tiny sea urchin, starfish, and sand dollar—things I had found as a child. It is about memory, the first boy after five girls. The little King Tut. I adored him.” How does this print suggest the memory of her brother differently than a photograph would?

Krieg named this work Sea Ice after a book of the same title (Cunningham Books, 1988) she loves, in which poet Stephen Berg (1934–2014) offers versions of Inuit songs.

Chromogenic print

Sheet h.: 24 in.

Sheet w.: 20 in.

Image h.: 22 in.

Image w.: 16 in.

Gift of the artist

91.104

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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