basket cases

A basket case, they say, is someone who has lost all four limbs in a war and must be carried off the field in a basket instead of on a stretcher. Or it's someone who is so anxious that they are unable to function normally.

Other words for basket case: whack job, freak, wingnut, weirdo, kook, fruitcake, eccentric.

It's what I called these sculptures when I started making them: basket cases. These days the word "basket" makes me think of this quote:

"It is when you are asking about something that you realize you yourself have survived it, and so you must carry it, or fashion it into a thing that carries itself." -Anne Carson