View allAll Photos Tagged ENG
Artist | Teo Eng Seng 張永生 (b.1938 in Singapore)
Title | Dragon Valley (2008-2009)
acrylic paint on foldable screen
Exhibitor | National Gallery Singapore
Exhibition | We're Happy. Are You Happy?
Dragon Valley consists of old foldable teak frames that Teo salvaged and repurposed. The artwork is both an artefact and a functional piece of furniture, blending various elements from several contributors. Teo used leftover sofa fabric gifted by fellow artist Anthony Poon, who was an interior designer at the time. The antique frames were salvaged from his wife Diana's discarded family heirlooms. Diana herself sewed the fabric onto them, providing surfaces onto which Teo applied energetic paint strokes.
The twisting lines recall calligraphy or Chinese dragons - symbols that allude to Teo's background as he explored his ethnic identity in Singapore. By deliberately appropriating an ordinary room screen familiar to Chinese households, Teo attempted to blur the boundaries between furniture and art, embedding his artistic concerns with ideas of the everyday.