Image size: 91.0 x 75.5 cm
Known for creating thought-provoking works with social commentary, Teo Eng Seng is also noted for his use of found materials and a self-invented medium and technique he calls “paperdyesculp”, which involves using dyed paper pulp as an artistic medium. He has also extended his oeuvre to include both performance and installation art. Both “Time and Motion” works speak to the artistic preoccupations at the time, especially that of formal aesthetic elements of such as temporal dynamism and its representational possibilities within two-dimensionality.Teo is included in what is now commonly known as the “Second-Generation Artists”, a term that covers Singapore artists active in the art scene from the 1960s onwards. The group includes artists such as Goh Beng Kwan, Choy Weng Yang, Anthony Poon and Thomas Yeo. This group of artists received training in art schools in Europe and America; their art approaches are thus strongly coloured by the artists’ international outlook on art styles and mediums. After teaching art in England for a few years (1968-1971), Teo returned to Singapore in 1971 to work at the Singapore International School (now the United World College of Southeast Asia), Singapore, where he eventually retired as head of its art department in 1996. For his contributions to art and art education, Teo was given the Cultural Medallion award (Visual Art) by the Ministry of Culture, Singapore in 1986.
