Movana Chen
Words Heartbeats / Love Letters
Flowers Gallery, Hong Kong
28 March - 11 May 2024
Love Letters #15 (1998 - 2010), 2023
Knitted shredded love letters, 13 x 21cm
© Movana Chen, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Old letters from 1989 to 2023
© Movana Chen, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Love letters #11, (1995) (Shredded), 2023
© Movana Chen, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Flowers Gallery presents Love Letters, a new body of work by MOVANA CHEN. Representative of her practice, Chen has meticulously archived the written communications from her loved ones spanning over three decades. Delving into a deeply personal aspect of communication, Movana Chen aims to reflect the female labour, personal and shared memories by way of materials transformation and decontextualization.
Love Letters is a collection of over 180 hand-written letters sent to the artist between 1989 - 2023 from friends, family and loved ones. The letters are shredded, deconstructed and knitted into visceral sculptural forms, locking old memories away in a suspended moment while threading them into a renewed manifestation of love.
Movana Chen explains:"These works are the reminder of an older time, when life had a slower pace, allowing more intimacy to be appreciated through the rich expressions contained in each letter and the joy of waiting."
Love letters #5 was created from a series of letters dated in 1991 when Movana Chen moved from Shenzhen, China to Hong Kong with her family. Re-visiting these old letters is a gesture of connecting with past memories. Assembled from the fragments of paper, the process of reconstructing is a journey of healing and meditation for Movana Chen.
MOVANA CHEN 陳麗雲
Movana Chen (b.1974) is a Hong Kong-based artist who studied at the London College of Fashion and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Hong Kong.
Movana Chen's multidisciplinary practice is rooted in the exploration of communication across cultures, deconstructing and reconstructing dictionaries, maps and paper forms to create sculptural installations and wearable works that represent new forms of language. Her work is a fusion of media, performance, installation and sculpture.
Movana Chen's works are in public and private collection globally, including the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong; Louis Vuitton, Hong Kong; Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong; William Lim Collection, Hong Kong; The Burger Collection, Switzerland & Hong Kong; M+, Hong Kong and CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong. Movana Chen is currently participating in the Thailand Biennale (The Open World) in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
In February 2024 a monumental installation Knitting Conversations by Movana Chen was presented at the Focus Gallery of M+.
FLOWERS GALLERY HONG KONG
49 Tung Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
