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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. I have a long history of joking about things that might make me cry if I weren't busy laughing.

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