Ng Eng Teng

(1934-2001)

Untitled

Footnotes

Provenance
Private American Collection

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Ng Eng Teng (1934-2001) is regarded as the "Grandfather of Singapore Sculpture". He had his roots studying painting under the first-generation of Nanyang School painters, including the artists' Georgette Chen and Liu Kang.

Talented in the plastic arts, and as especially since there were no sculptors in Singapore at that time, he was encouraged by his mentor Georgette Chen to go to the United Kingdom to further his studies. This ignited a career dedicated to sculpture, leading to the pioneering use of industrial ciment fondu in sculpture.

"I find ciment fondu a better material for sculpture making. With ciment fondu, I can make a sculpture hollow, so it would not be excessively heavy. Just imagine a sculpture in ciment fondu and cast hollow. The weight will probably be one quarter that of a piece of that size in marble or bronze. Ciment fondu is a very beautiful material. You can stain it to different colours and, should it be damaged, you can repair it back to its original condition; whereas with marble, once it is chipped, it is very difficult to repair to the same texture or grain. The only set-back is in the name because, when you explain that it is industrial concrete, people do not often think highly of an artwork made from it."

― Ng Eng Teng (C Sheares, "In Conversation: Constance Sheares and Ng Eng Teng" in BODIES TRANSFORMED: Ng Eng Teng in the Nineties, Singapore, 1999)

His Untitled Head, 1972, is a prime example of the artist pushing boundaries in his medium yet remaining faithful to his background in portraiture and his time spent abroad looking at works by Epstein, Rodin, and Moore. Created for his second solo exhibition in 1972 with Singapore Art Society and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Society of Chinese Artists, this "rocking head" saw its genesis in his Growth Forms, 1962, with the development of a germinating seed as a leitmotif.

Form, function, and material meld into a round biomorphic ball of emotion. In profile, the work is naturalistic, gentle, and hints at a sleeping figure who, when "rocked" or disturbed, lets out a startled silent scream.

Thus, the head is "brought to life" and capable of movement. The audience, like its creator, can interact with this kinetic work of art.

"The rotund belly has become a head with an upturned face. The features are simplified almost to abstraction, and colour is added to give it an air of gaiety. Rock it if you will, the temptation is too great to resist. This concept in sculpture where the viewer is encouraged to participate in a work of art is an attempt to enable the viewer to identify himself with the object in front of him."

― Chai Wai Hon ("Ng Eng Teng's New Image", 2001, on The Postcolonial Literature and Culture Web Website)

Utilising the same growth/seed leitmotif juxtaposed against a worry-ridden, unsettling face, not to mention being cast in a rough and industrial material such as ciment fondu, the viewer might see Ng reflecting poignant feelings of uncertainty towards the rapid urbanization and modernisation of a newly independent Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s.