Arts Preview: Movana Chen shows off the pick of her knits

KNITERATURE: THE ART OF MOVANA CHEN

Movana Chen knits every day. In fact, the artist known for her signature approach of knitting with shredded paper does so for anywhere between five and 16 hours a day, seven days a week. She does it at home and she does it while travelling overseas. Knitting has become a big part of her life.

"It's OK, I don't get tired," Chen assures me, "because I've been doing this for years. People tend to worry that my hands must be suffering from some kind of ailment by now - but there's actually no problem at all. They're perfectly fine."

For the next few weeks, visitors to Chen's retrospective at ArtisTree will be greeted by a wide-ranging collection of works which she has presumably not sacrificed her hands for.

From the wearable "magazine clothes" she made when her knitting projects started in 2004 to her latest works, the exhibit demonstrates the subtly evolving conceptual framework that underscores Chen's monotonous and monumentally time-consuming practice.

A 1997 graduate from the London College of Fashion, Chen happened to be working in the accounts department of a shipping company when she was looking for ideas for an art project. At the time she was studying for a part-time degree at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), which she graduated from in 2005.