Caryn Simonson

 


Stitched Brown Paper Bag — made during Professor Carol Tulloch and Celia Pym’s ‘in conversation’ Stitching Holds Space, online in Collaborate Ultra


Hur mår du? How are you? Tack, bara bra. Very well, thanks. I am learning Swedish. These familiar greetings often begin the way into a conversation and take on a new resonance right now. What might have been a fleeting opening line in an email, seems to touch more deeply, a heartfelt caring and sharing opener. An unfolding project where the past collapses into the present and future, around four generations of rural Swedish tailors is on hold, travel paused. As I stitched, I wondered what my Swedish grandfather or great grandfather would say to me right now and imagined MS Teams transporting them in time not unlike the way Ada Lovelace appears to Emmy Coer in Conceiving Ada. I call my 92 year old father on Facetime and ask Hur mår du? I am thankful he replies Tack, bara bra.