Bodily sensations are our shared experiences. Repetitive actions that copy the manner of our neighbor, who copied them from the person who lived there before them. How wonderful it is to have these shared traditions of mundanity, how beautiful that everyone who has come before us has sneezed, and how warm it feels to know all those who come after will crack their knuckles. These moments are eternal, and they do not matter.

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My paintings are not eternal, and they do not matter. They celebrate, or at least memorialize, my to-do lists. My figures are frozen and painted and drawn into these momentary experiences, and they remind me of my duties in keeping house. I use paper and oil paint to create my interiors, and crayons to keep my figures in their linear containers. My puppets feel eternal, if only because of their souls. They are meant to extend from the practiced movements of the body, adding a theatrical step in the routine. They mimic us, just as we always repeat what has been done before. That is why I make them in our papier-mached image. Without them, who would I copy?

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Elise Kleinbauer (b. 2003, Boston, MA) is based in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently receiving her B.F.A. from Pratt Institute.