Romantic Recall

Movana Chen has received more than 180 love letters over her lifetime, and is now making artworks with them. The artist speaks to Tatler about the sentimental value of letter-writing 

- Aaina Bhargava

We’ve all had that feeling when anxiety and excitement combine to form a desperate hope that prevails when common sense fails—waiting for a reply to a proclamation of love. If your preferred medium of communication is text, then those two blue ticks denoting a read message, met without reply, are all it takes to trigger nervousness, both the good and bad kind. But if you’re an old soul and prefer letter-writing, that feeling is only amplified, as you’ll never truly know when or if at all the intended recipient read your message. That is, until you receive a reply.

A true romantic, Hong Kong artist Movana Chen loves that state—the anticipation of receiving a response of requited love and mutual affection. When asked about how she feels about receiving love letters, she transforms into a lovestruck teenager. “You know that feeling when you write ‘I love you’ to a person, and you think they’re feeling the same way but haven’t said it yet, and then you get a letter saying ‘I love you’,” she says, erupting into giggles. “It’s so nice.”

If you’re lucky, you get to experience this a couple of times in your lifetime. Chen is the recipient of scores of love letters, yet is still chasing the feeling; the artist has a youthful disposition that reflects her spirit yet belies her 47 years of age. Chen spoke to Tatler via video call from Thailand, where she was participating in the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Mai.