KNITerature
ArtisTree / Hong Kong
20.09 - 19.10.2013
Sponsored by Swire Properties, a solo exhibition “KNITerature” by Hong Kong based artist Movana Chen. This exhibition is a retrospective of the body of work the artist has created over the last decade. In order to encourage the participation of visitors, attractive programs including knitting performance will be arranged during the exhibition period. started her knitting projects in 2004 by making “magazine clothes”, a genre that plays with deconstructing and reconstructing of meanings and content by knitting shredded magazine or book papers. Her early works sculpted a multi-disciplinary fusion of media, fashion, performance, installation and sculpture that extends till recent years.
Movana’s new work “Body Container Comes to Life in Hong Kong” is a home-coming performance having travelled to Seoul, Paris and London. It is a video recording the artist in a body sculpture knitted with shredded travel maps performing on the streets of Hong Kong earlier this year. Movana aims to experience different cultures, histories, communities, lifestyles and interact with local people. From reading, shredding, knitting to travelling to various cities, Movana has developed an intimate relationship with the stories of the materials and their lives. She is eager to explore ways to “wear” one’s identity, to experiment and to perform with the “Body Container”.
”Knitting Conversations”, the hero piece of the exhibition, is a two-year collaborative work with over 150 participants. This project connects all participants and allows them to communicate across nations and cultures. Movana has invited families, friends, strangers and students around the world to involve in this project by knitting one or more books with special meanings or memories from their bookshelves. A large installation work will be assembled for exhibition after collecting all participating pieces. Movana and the participants havedeveloped a communication web and a tactile acquaintance with the raw materials through teaching and knitting. Through this collaborative work, Movana’s art is deeply interwoven with everyday processes of participants’ daily lives.
“Movana’s work is engaging…it is a process of transmogrification. A transmogrification that is irreversible and destructive yet transformative and generative. It quintessentially symbolises the very act of Creation.”
- Helen Ng and Evangelo Costadimas
Co-curators of KNITerature
“Movana’s work speaks to the connections between imagination and experience, dreams and reality, and the ties of love and compassion that bind us together.”
- Jonathan Thomson
Artist, art historian, critic, curator
“Movana’s art has been evolved from “putting together” (i.e., rearrangement and/or editing) to “being together” (i.e., collaborative art). People love Movana’s knitting world because, in there, they can taste an unfamiliar but gorgeous piece of the seemingly-impossible dreamworld.”
- Euan Park
Collaborator of Movana’s project / translator-cum-publisher in Seoul
