‘Torso to Face (Male)’ belongs to the cluster of works coined by the art historian Constance Sheares as the “torso-to-face” series, through which Ng Eng Teng explored ideas of the mutating body. The monumental sculpture appears as a totem with biological features, with eyes and breasts which may be interchangeable depending on whether one envisions it as a face or torso. In the centre, the nose is raised as a continuous swell which bulges and dips down into the lower, bulbous end of the sculpture. The work is executed in ciment fondu, a material favoured by the artist for its malleability, and paint. Ng also produced a companion sculpture titled ‘Torso to Face (Female)’, and both sculptures were displayed at the entrance of the exhibition ‘Provocative Things’ at the Sculpture Square, curated by TK Sabapathy. The series developed out of life-drawing exercises. Ng said, “…the Torso-to-Face series …came about from doing these [life] drawings… at each session I see an image of a face looking at me from the body, and this impression gets more intense each time”. These observations led Ng to produce several sculptures with recognisable forms of the face, which are modelled in a way that they are also witty plays on the form of human body. As Ng suggests, they are “light-heartedly naughty, sensual, sexy, yet un-erotic.”
