Our meals were simple – sweet potatoes, rice and fish. I often ate sitting outside on the street with the cat. We lived near the sea and my dad worked as a delivery person, carrying fish to the market on his bicycle. My mum always had a baby on her back when she worked, weaving fabric.

Love letters

I walked there holding a sister with each hand and another on my shoulders. It was my first time going to school. Because I didn’t know how to read or write, I was in a class with children two years younger than me.

I loved school and playing with the boys and girls. I began writing a diary and enjoyed writing love letters. I was so happy when a boy replied, and kept all the love letters I received.

Movana on up

After moving to Hong Kong, at first we lived in Kowloon Tong. Later, as my father’s business improved, we moved to Dynasty Court, on Old Peak Road. Our family has moved a lot and I’m always the one to pack and unpack everything.

At first, I went to Delia School of Canada in Tai Koo. It was there that I learned English – I had an English tutor and private piano and violin lessons. It was my English tutor who gave me the name Movana.

Barbie girl

In 1992, I went to Lok Sin Tong Leung Kau Kui College, in Sai Ying Pun, for a couple of years and, in 1994, I moved to Singapore to complete high school with two of my sisters.

We shared a flat and I studied at the Australian International School. I majored in painting and my final year project was chosen to feature on the cover of the school yearbook. That painting now hangs in my home in Portugal.

I’m not a fine art painter. I love to express myself and always carry a sketchbook with me. I use it like a diary.

Fashion forward

My second sister went to London to study fashion. In 1996, I moved there, too. We shared a flat and I studied at the London College of Fashion. I missed my boyfriend in Singapore, so he moved to London as well and got a job.

After a couple of years, my dad’s business went down, and they moved from Old Peak Road to Tai Hang and then later to North Point and then Tai Po. I didn’t complete the three-year course and moved back to Hong Kong. I married my boyfriend and we moved in together. We are still good friends.

I briefly worked in fashion when I came back, but quickly realised my boss just wanted me to follow trends. I didn’t want to become a copy machine. I wanted to support my family.

During the day, I helped my dad with his bookkeeping and in the evening, I studied accountancy. I worked for my dad for seven years.

The finer things

In 2003, during the Sars outbreak, everyone was depressed. I was working as an accountant for my dad. I had to be on my phone 24 hours a day, it was very tiring.

As I walked past the Hong Kong Arts Centre, I was handed a leaflet about the BA (fine art) course. Because I’d already studied fashion design, I was accepted. It was an evening course and I majored in painting. I loved going to school and was always the first one in class.

Shredding light

While I was studying, I continued to help my dad’s business. One day, as I was shredding documents, I got the idea to shred one of the magazines I’d collected in London and knit the shreds into a paper dress. That became my first project on the BA.

When I graduated, in 2005, I had my first exhibition, in a corridor of the Hong Kong Art School.

Making love

As more people got to know my work, I got invitations from all over the world – Korea, Russia, Istanbul. In 2008, I showed my work in Beijing and at the first international art fair in Hong Kong, Art HK.

I performed my body container sculpture – I wore the sculpture made from shredded magazines. That helped me to get more international attention. In 2009, I started a project called “travelling into your bookshelf”. I went on the road with the artwork.

When you are on the road, you make love with people, not in the physical sense but through the artwork. I feel my heartbeat when I meet someone and I tell them, “I love you”.

I still write love letters. It feels so wonderful when you open the mailbox and receive a letter. I will read it 20 times and then shred it and knit it into an artwork. In my upcoming exhibition at Flowers Gallery, titled “Love Letters”, I can smell and taste the memories.

Right at home

My artwork Knitting Conversations – not the complete work, a part of it – first showed in Hong Kong in 2013 at ArtisTree. I’d invited friends I’d met on the road to give me a book from their bookshelf that I would read and then shred, and the person would knit it in their home.

There were 400 books from people all over the world. They didn’t know each other, but they were connected through this work. We knitted together to share the moment. In 2017, 150 people joined the project in Los Angeles.

The space, with its high ceilings and great light, brings the work to life. It’s like an ocean. It doesn’t feel like a museum, it feels like a home connecting all the people I’ve met.

Beside the seaside

In the summer of 2021, I moved to Portugal and I live by the sea, just outside Lisbon. I enjoy living there and spending time in nature with friends.

I’m enjoying being in Hong Kong for the M+ exhibition. There is so much going on in Hong Kong with Art Week – there is so much to see, so much artist noise. Being in a city is an adjustment, but I’m not sure how long I can stay. I need to go back to nature.

Movana Chen’s “Love Letters” will be exhibited at Flowers Gallery, 42 Tung Street, Sheung Wan. March 28 to May 11. Visit flowersgallery.com for details.