Mending Hope

Can working with your hands improve your mood? For Kisook Suh, a textile conservator at The Met, there’s deep satisfaction and purpose in caring for tapestries that are hundreds of years old. But her artistry doesn’t stop there: once home, she relaxes by mending holes in her young son’s blue jeans and rescuing clothes that otherwise might be discarded. Kisook describes the solace found in repairing things—stitch by stitch—and how the process itself fosters hope for other kinds of healing, whether broken relationships or her mother’s ill health in Korea.

Guest: Kisook Suh, conservator, Textile Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Featured object: The Falcon’s Bath, 1495-1505. South Netherlandish. Tapestry with wool warp and wool wefts, 137 1/2 x 145 1/2 in. (349.3 x 369.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 2011, (2011.93)

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