Tendere

2021

Linen, thread

87 x 15 cm / 34 x 6 inches

The words “tension” and “tenderness” may appear to us as contradictory, but both find root in the Latin tendere, meaning “to stretch.” In French, “to stretch” and “tender” are the same word: tendre. It can also mean to hold one’s hand out. These words find their root in the Proto-Indo-European root *ten, which also meant “to stretch.”

Both softness and the act of offering gentle attention, and something being pulled, stretched out, becoming taut, speak to reaching out beyond oneself, to an extension. In this piece, the words reach out to each other and meet in the center, at their root.