Movana Chen

Movana Chen (陳麗雲) is a Hong Kong–based female artist and curator. She is renowned for her unique approach of using shredded magazine papers to knit clothes. She uses a paper-shredder to transform print media into a textile-like material which she knits together to form clothing, containers and structures. Her artworks are a multidisciplinary fusion of media transformation, fashion, performance, and sculpture, which has been presented in exhibitions and events in Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, London and Paris.

Early Life and education

Movana was born in 1974 in Chaozhou, China, she went to Shenzhen with her family in the mid-1980s and then moved to Hong Kong. In the run-up to the handover in 1997, they moved to Singapore, where she started her interest in art and dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. She studied fashion design at the London College of Fashion for a year and returned to Hong Kong and studied accountancy.[1]

In 2005, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Hong Kong.[2] In 2007, she finished her Exhibition Studies and Art Curatorship at the Hong Kong Art School.[3]

Career

She worked as an accountant from 1997 to 2004.[4] After quitting her job as an accountant, she worked as the curator of Hong Kong's YY9 gallery and is currently an independent curator.[5]

Artworks, style and technique

Famous for her knitting artwork, Movana uses shredded magazine paper as material and weaves them into art pieces using conventional knitting needles. Her signature art work is called "Body Container", which is magazine paper weaved into wearable artwork.[6]

The idea of the art work comes from attempting to examine the relationship between clothes and the media and reflecting our use of disposable commodities. She uses magazines published in different languages, which she believes is a way to appreciate different cultures, by turning books and literature into an artistic form.[7]

Unlike conventional and traditional "art" which are created through brush strokes and paint on canvas, Movana adopts strings of paper as her paint and brush to create art pieces. The idea within her art shows the indifference and alienation amongst people, and aims to reduce the distance between individuals and encourage interactions among us all in society.[8] Her exhibition KNITERATURE held in 2013, took two-years in the making and 400 books.[9] Knitting Conversations is one of the artworks in the exhibition, a 15-meter collaborative piece from books and magazines by 150 participants from the ages of five to ninety from across the globe. Her philosophy is that shredding is a process of transformation, and knitting is a process of creating, and communicating. Knitting is also a way of exploration of the world and ourselves.[10]

A "body container" knitted from shredded Tintin comic books (French version) is estimated to be valued around 150,000 to 200,000 Hong Kong Dollars by Christie's.[11]

Solo Exhibition
  • In 2005, White Tube, Hong Kong Art Centre, first solo exhibition, Play with Artbooks[12][13] The exhibition showed an exploration of rationality & sensibility between herself and the art book. Magazines were made into stripes and a wearable dress, and the dress was treated as a communication tool, transformed into an installation, photography, painting and sculpture.
  • In 2006, Wear Me Out, The Fringe Club Hong Kong[14]
  • In 2007, two exhibitions - Play with Artbooks-II, The Fringe Club Hong Kong,[15] and Wear Me Out-II, The 10th Seoul Fringe Festival, HUT Gallery Seoul Korea[16] in which magazines from Hong and Korea were used to create the artworks. They include camisole, pants, bikinis, etc. The audience was encouraged to wear the artwork in the street.
  • In 2008, two exhibitions - Two-way Communication, Beijing, and Pekin Fine Arts Beijing, China[17] and Two-way Communication, IFC Mall Hong Kong.[18]
  • In 2009, Travelling into my Bookshelf, Shin Hwa Gallery, Hong Kong.[19] Movana Chen used books from her friends as knitting material. It is different from her previous project which used easily disposable magazines, this project emphasized books that contain memories of their owners and the communication with her friends' memories during the knitting process.
  • In 2011, Travelling into your bookshelf – Paris, Chinart LaGalerie, Paris.[20][21] Movana Chen started the project "Travelling into your bookshelf" by using the collection in her bookshelf which included magazines and art books (139 books). She tried to study the relationship between herself and each book. People were invited to donate one book from their own bookshelf from around the world in different languages. She read the books and tried to understand what memories or story her friend wanted to share, to learn new cultures and also establish a new way of communication. In 2009, she traveled to London, Milan, Korea, Michigan, Philadelphia, Sicily, Paris, Melbourne, Hannover, and Turkey to gather the materials.
  • In 2011, Body Containers come to life at, K11 art mall,[22][23] Hong Kong. It explored ways to experiment and perform with the "Body Container", expressing the concept of how the human form embodies ideas about our society, through "wearing" one’s identity.
  • In 2013, KNITerature, ArtisTree, Hong Kong. Chen’s exhibition includes works of art from knitted paper. Raw materials such as paper, magazines, books and newspapers were used to create her artworks. The centrepiece of the exhibition, Knitted Conversations, is a two-year collaborative project that features knitted patchwork from more than 150 participants of different countries and ages.[24][25]

Selected Group Exhibition
2015 Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair[26] Istanbul Congress Center (ICC) and Istanbul Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICEC) Istanbul, Turkey
A Tale of Costumes[27] Espace Louis Vuitton Venice, Italy
The Future of Fashion is Now[28] OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (Shanghai)/ OCT Art & Design Gallery (Shenzhen) Shanghai/ Shenzhen, China
Mitundohnepunktundkomma the Thönserstraße in Großburgwedel Hannover, Germany
Marco Polo in Pinata[29] Cube 37, Frankston Arts Centre Melbourne, Australia
2014 The Future of Fashion is Now[30] Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Elephant Parade Hong Kong[31] Pacific Place Hong Kong
2013 CODA Paper Art CODA Museum Apeldoorn,the Netherlands
The Sovereign Asian Art Prize Finalists Exhibition[32] Exchange Square (Hong Kong)/ Seoul Auction (Seoul) Hong Kong/ Seoul, South Korea
2012 Design Futurology[33] MoA Museum of Art Seoul National University Seoul, South Korea
THE ART OF DESS[34] Espace Louis Vuitton Hong Kong/ Singapore
ARTHK12, HK International Art Fair 2012 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Hong Kong
The Sovereign Asian Art Prize Finalists Exhibition[35] Exchange Square (Hong Kong)/ The Sands Expo and Convention Center (Singapore) Hong Kong/ Singapore
2011 SHOW OFF Solo Show Art Fair[36] port des Champs Elysees Paris, France
Ethical fashion Show[37] Carrousel de Louvre Paris, France
"Knit Together" Collaboration with Club Monaco & Lane Crawford[38] Atrium, ifc mall Hong Kong
2010 "War & Peace" The International Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul[39] Seoul Arts Centre Seoul, South Korea
"ECHO" Hong Kong Sculpture Biennial 2010[40] The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
".be Anti-Crisis" DETOUR-DESIGNR-rdv project / Hong Kong and Brussels, Belgium
ARTHK10, HK International Art Fair 2010 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Hong Kong
2009 "Fashion & Art Exhibition" A Global VOGUE Celebration of Fashion[41] / Beijing, China
Fashion Ethics "Wear Good" 2009 Cross Genre Exhibition[42][43] Gyeonggi MoMA Ansan,South Korea
Mixed Media and Body Containers on Display[44] The Opposite House, Swire Hotel Beijing, China
2008 ARTHK08, HK International Art Fair 2008[45] Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Hong Kong
Beyond the Body[46] Galerie helene Lamarque Miami Paris, France
THE TABLE Chater Garden Hong Kong Hong Kong
Shanghai MoCA Envisage II – Butterfly Dream[47] MoCA Shanghai Museum Shanghai, China
2007 Art-To-Wear[48] Gallery Benten 17 Hong Kong
Fashion x Art LCX Shopping Mall Hong Kong
2006 Paradigm Shift BA (Fine Art) Graduation Show 2006 Pao's Gallery Hong Kong
New Trend 2006 Artist Commune Hong Kong
Crackers Hong Kong Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre Hong Kong
2005 Beyond the Surface Artist Commune Hong Kong
Crossing Path YY9 Gallery Hong Kong
My fair Lady Too Art Gallery Hong Kong

Award

2013: Selected one of the 30 Finalists for the 2012–13 Sovereign Asian Art Prize[49]

2012: Selected one of the 30 Finalists for the 2011 Sovereign Asian Art Prize[50]

2009: New York Festivals 2009 Film & Video Awards, Finalist Certificate "Close to Culture: Art Faces – movana chen i-CABLE News Ltd., Hong Kong[51]

2008:"40 under 40" creative talents Award, perspective magazine, Hong Kong

Publications
  1. KNITerature: The art of Movana Chen (September 2013), ISBN 978-988-1858498[52]
  2. Two-Way Communication: The Art of Movana Chen (April 2008), ISBN 978-988-17377-3-1[53]
gollark: What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
gollark: I mean, I like reptiles, I have a gecko, but a snake doing that is... still kind of scary.
gollark: I mean, you could rotate it, but that would surely add even more !!FUN!! problems.
gollark: I have no idea then. Unless you can move it overland on some kind of giant platform thing, or something like that.
gollark: I could probably also, if I could be bothered, store encrypted copies of that on AWS Glacier or other random cloud services, I guess.

References
  1. Performer happy that she decided to follow her art,South China Morning Post, by David Phair, 3 May 2008 http://www.movanachen.com/img/reviews/2008/R2_May08_SCMP.jpg
  2. Kan, M.K. (26 September 2006). "藝術與生活". Jiu Jik.
  3. "40 under 40: Design's Next Generation". Perspective. August 2008.
  4. 織織復織織 明報 by Joanne Cheng, 16 August 2007 http://www.movanachen.com/img/reviews/2007/R4-Aug07_mingpao.jpg
  5. Avant guardians, South China Morning Post, by Dora Chan, 14 August 2007 http://www.movanachen.com/img/reviews/2007/R3_Aug07_scmp.jpg
  6. loveyourtrash. (24 April 2011). Movana Chen knits paper. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXTVS9AKz1U
  7. Saatchi Art. Movana Chen. Retrieved from http://www.saatchiart.com/movanachen
  8. Wong, S.Y. (17 July 2014) ARTIST STUDIO: 陳麗雲. Retrieved from http://altermodernists.com/2014/07/17/studio-movanachen/
  9. KAPT. (15 February 2015). KNITTING STORIES – Movana Chen. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzwc7LmSWwI
  10. Nuga, Haruka. (15 October 2013). KNITERATURE: THE ART OF MOVANA CHEN. Retrieved from http://onlinejournalism.jmsc.hku.hk/2013fall/team_b/?p=99
  11. Christie's. (10 March 2015). Movana Chen: Weaving people’s stories. Retrieved from http://www.christies.com/features/Hong-Kong-Artist-Movana-Chen-5772-1.aspx
  12. Play with Artbooks – Works by Movana Chen. (n.d.). Retrieved 31 March 2016, from http://www.aaa.org.hk/WorldEvents/Details/3157
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