A good yarn

Chen knits together various pieces to form a tapestry for her solo exhibition Kniterature.

"One day, when I was shredding, I thought about how to change the waste into something practical. I originally studied fashion and decided to try and knit the paper together."

That was in 2003. Chen gave up her accounting job to concentrate full time on her art and has never looked back. For her previous project Body Container, she knitted together maps from travels around the world as she waited in airports and train stations, eventually forming a tube that enveloped her from head to toe.

She wore the piece as it progressed in each destination where she was situated as installation art, culminating on the streets of Hong Kong and filmed by James Vyner.

When Swire Properties made ArtisTree available for her one-woman show, she was at once elated and terrified. "The hall with 2,000 square meters is a big space," she admits. "How do I use the space effectively? Should it be one large piece or many small ones? How do I light it? Architecture firm KPlusK supported me with some great advice."

She believes that intentionally destroying and transforming a book is part of the process of giving it new meaning. "I've read all the books that were shredded, except the ones that are in languages I don't understand," she says. "For those, I try to find the translated version if it's available. Through the process, I learn about the memories that make up each of us."