Filler, pine panel In this work, I pressed a large rubber hose loop into the surface of the panel so that it may evoke a fetus or a figure curled in the fetal position. Life, as we know it, requires an enclosed form—a boundary separating an interior from an exterior. It needs a body of some kind, though that body may take infinitely varied shapes. Within it, organs are folded, bent, and curved, compressed into a limited space and filling it to the brim. Yet the body is not shaped solely from within. It is also molded by external forces, adapting to the constraints of its environment—whether physical, social, or psychological. Rubber Hose Drawings In these works, I use loops of rubber hose to create imprints in moist filler. The loops are pressed into the surface of the panel and held in place by a raised edge surrounding the format. The elasticity of the rubber introduces a tension into the forms. When I use rubber hose as a drawing tool, I see it as a metaphor for language. Language, too, is elastic. Words and images influence and distort one another depending on how they are arranged. A sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissection table mean something different together than they do in any other context. The elasticity of language also creates tension—something that can be experienced as either beauty or discomfort. Yet we tend to assume that, after being stretched or bent, language returns to a natural or ideal state. Psychoanalytic theory might describe this belief as belonging to the Imaginary register. We need language to be elastic because language is inseparable from life. Its resilience lies in the ability to maintain a coherent form while adjusting to the environment. Without this elasticity, both language and life would be far more vulnerable to the entropy of the world.