Cover Shredded details of Chen's "Letters (17) #2023" (2023) (Photo: courtesy Flowers Gallery)
Shredded details of Chen's "Letters (17) #2023" (2023) (Photo: courtesy Flowers Gallery)
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For her upcoming exhibition at Flowers Gallery in March, Hong Kong artist Movana Chen adds a new dimension to the sentimental value of letter-writing
We’ve all had that feeling when anxiety and excitement combine to form a desperate hope that prevails when common sense fails—waiting for a reply to a proclamation of love. If your preferred medium of communication is text, then those two blue ticks denoting a read message, met without reply, are all it takes to trigger nervousness, both the good and bad kind. But if you’re an old soul and prefer letter-writing, that feeling is only amplified, as you’ll never truly know when or if at all the intended recipient read your message. That is, until you receive a reply.
A true romantic, Hong Kong artist Movana Chen loves that state—the anticipation of receiving a response of requited love and mutual affection. When asked about how she feels receiving love letters, she transforms into a love-struck teenager. “You know that feeling when you write ‘I love you’ to a person, and you think they’re feeling the same way but haven’t said it yet, and then you get a letter saying ‘I love you’,” she says, erupting into giggles. “It’s so nice.”
If you’re lucky, you get to experience this a couple of times in your lifetime. Chen is the recipient of scores of love letters, yet is still chasing the feeling; the artist has a youthful disposition that reflects her spirit yet belies her 47 years of age. Chen spoke to Tatler via video call from Thailand, where she was participating in the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Mai.
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Above Artist Movana Chen next to her installation (Photo: courtesy Flowers Gallery)
Above Shredded details of Chen's "Letters (17) #2023" (2023) (Photo: courtesy Flowers Gallery)
Artist Movana Chen next to her installation (Photo: courtesy Flowers Gallery)
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Chen, who is best known for her woven paper sculptures and installations, enjoys the thrill of seeking new experiences, connections and possibilities, mostly through travel and meeting new people. Her art is inspired by this; her Travelling Bookshelf series, for example, which was last exhibited at Flowers Gallery in 2020, is composed of shredded and woven pages of books the artist traded with strangers while travelling. Pages from books will also make their way into a large-scale installation which Chen is unveiling as a part of Knitting Conversations, at M+’s Focus gallery opening on February 17.
Drawing from her own archive of 180-odd love letters, the artist has a new exhibition opening at Flowers Gallery again this March, Words of Heartbeats, which features her new series, Love Letters. She first created the work for Flower Gallery’s exhibition Small is Beautiful at its London outpost in 2021. This latest set is inspired by pieces of personal correspondence that the artist received between 1989 and 2023.
Movement has been a constant in Chen’s life. In 1991, her family moved to Hong Kong from mainland China and she started writing letters to friends and family back home. “When I first started [writing letters], I wasn’t so good at expressing my feelings,” the artist recalls— but that soon changed.
In 1994, Chen moved from Hong Kong to Singapore, where she met her first boyfriend. He moved to Shanghai the following year, prompting them to keep in touch via snail mail. “When you’re young, you don’t really know what love is; you just miss some boy or girl, and you want to communicate with them.” During an era when long-distance calls were expensive, she relied on handwritten correspondence that meant weeks of lag time, but also gave her a chance to reflect on what she wanted to share with loved ones, even if they were halfway around the world. It’s taking a conversation and stretching it out over weeks, months, years.
Above Movana Chen’s “Letters (11) #1995” (2023) (Photo: courtesy of Flowers Gallery)
Above Chen's old letters (Photo: courtesy Flowers Gallery)
Movana Chen’s “Letters (11) #1995” (2023) (Photo: courtesy of Flowers Gallery)
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In 1997, a wave of emigration following Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule resulted in many of Chen’s friends moving abroad; that same year, she left Singapore and headed to London to study fashion design. Maintaining relationships required sustaining connection, and letters seemed to do the trick.
It was the physical nature of letters and letter-writing which strengthened Chen’s affinity for this method of communication. “It’s nice to read the letter and to hold it. You can see the lines and marks they [the sender] make while writing, it’s almost like they’re talking to you,”she says.“When you read a text message or email on the computer, on the screen, it’s cold and unreal.” Chen takes this physicality one step further and transforms her letters by shredding them and reconstructing them into sculptural forms. Each work is composed of interwoven letters that Chen received in a particular year. For instance, Letters (17) #2023 (2023) contains lines from two letters the artist received last year, both from former romantic partners she recently reconnected with. Letters (11) #1995 (2023) contains letters she wrote to her first boyfriend.
The Love Letter series holds expressions of love, affection and attention that the artist received and imparted over the years. It is an amalgamation of relationships formed all over the world, which she brings together to make heartfelt and nostalgic sculptures that are perhaps the most personal artworks she’s ever created. Every strip of paper is brimming with the emotions and care that Chen gave and received, which she weaves together for posterity. “I love people, and I love expressing my feelings for them to them.”
In a time when information and people are so easily accessed but also easily disposed of or disconnected from, Chen’s eschewing of efficient communication is endearing. Through her work, she takes us back to a time when reading a hand-written “I love you too” or “I miss you” left little to be taken for granted.
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Aaina was the Arts and Culture Editor of Tatler Asia. A passion for history and all things visual led her in the pursuit of art history. With extensive experience in the art world working for a range of art institutions, she combined her passion and expertise in the form of art and culture journalism. Prior to Tatler, Aaina worked as a culture reporter for South China Morning Post and editor at the online art platform Cobo Social. Additionally, she has contributed to a variety of prestigious art publications including Art Review, The Art Newspaper, Ocula, Art Agenda, Artsy, Design Anthology, and Artomity. Follow her on Instagram.
