Born in Singapore in 1946, Chong Fah Cheong is a self-taught artist, recognized for his iconic public artworks. A teacher by training, Chong decided to become a professional artist in 1978. He continued to teach part-time and became one of first art lecturers at LASALLE College of Art and Design between 1984 and 1987. Fallen Warrior was exhibited at Chong’s first solo exhibition, Woodscape, at the Alpha Gallery and is representative of the artist’s early forays into woodcarving. The semi-abstract figure in Fallen Warrior shows that Chong Fah Cheong closely studied the pattern and grain of the wood he used. The contours of the sculpture have been carefully aligned with where the grain changes density and direction. Since the late 1970s, the artist often worked with salvaged wood. This work is made from jambu wood that the artist had gathered from the roadside; its base made from chengal wood salvaged from shophouses in Chinatown that were torn down in the 1970s. Chong said, “the carving and chiselling of the surface, the scratches, and the markings; to me that is being human, that is realising myself and finding my own vitality.”
