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27-11-12, 19:34
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/sunday/premium/news/story/home-late-sculptor-ng-eng-teng-grabs-20121125
Home of late sculptor Ng Eng Teng 'up for grabs'
Published on Nov 25, 2012
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/sunday/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/ST_20121125_KHNG_3407146e.jpg
The home of the late Ng Eng Teng, the artist known as the grandfather of Singapore sculpture, at 106 Joo Chiat Place. The new owners of the property will be opening it to the public this Thursday from 2pm to 8pm, before the wrecking ball relegates it to the back burners of memory. -- ST FILE PHOTO
By Wong Kim Hoh Senior Writer
Fancy a piece of the home of the late Ng Eng Teng, the artist known as the grandfather of Singapore sculpture?
Then grab your tools and head down to 106 Joo Chiat Place this Thursday from 2pm to 8pm - before the wrecking ball relegates the old bungalow to the back burners of memory.
The new owners of the property - which the Cultural Medallion winner also used as his art studio - will be opening it to the public.
"Windows, doors, walls and everything that makes the foundation of the house has to go," says Mr Edmond Wong, 29, a director of Kim Choo Holdings, which bought the place in 2008.
Representatives of community art project Awaken The Dragon will also be there.
They will be salvaging wood from the dismantled house and use it to rouse Singapore's last two dragon kilns at Jalan Bahar in Jurong.
The group hopes to fire 3,000 pottery pieces by Singaporeans before the Year of the Dragon draws to a close on Feb 9 next year.
"Symbolically, this will be Ng Eng Teng's final contribution to the art scene in Singapore," says Mr Wong.
Although best known for his sculptures such as the Mother-And- Child bulbous bronze outside Far East Shopping Centre, Ng, who trained in Singapore and Britain, was also an accomplished potter.
For several years until the early 1990s, a group of ceramists called the Studio 106 Group would gather at his house to discuss artistic techniques. They also fired their works at the now defunct Sam Mui Kang Pottery in Ang Mo Kio which had a dragon kiln.
Mr Wong is overseeing the demolition of the late artist's home and studio with a heavy heart.
Ever since it was bought by his family's Kim Choo Holdings - which has business interests in food, fashion and heritage - he has been trying to conserve the studio- house where Ng created many of his key sculptural pieces.
Plans to turn it into a space for artists-in-residence - which was what it was for several years until 2004 - fell through.
Earlier this year, a potential donor indicated support for a project to dismantle and relocate the house elsewhere.
Known architecturally as a rumah panggung (stage house), the bungalow - with hipped-gable roofs and elevated on stilts about 1.5m high - is one of the few traditional Sumatran houses left in Singapore.
Discussions were initiated with a team from the architecture school at the National University of Singapore (NUS). However, the idea to save the house came to nought.
The site, which together with an adjoining plot of land measures 876 sq m, will be developed into four terraced houses.
"There is so much artistic history to this place. I tried my best but unfortunately..." Mr Wong says, trailing off.
He takes comfort in the fact that he managed to work with the NUS Museum earlier this year to document the house where Ng lived and worked from 1966, when he returned from Ireland, until his death in 2001.
The result is an exhibition, 106 Joo Chiat Place, which showcases materials gathered from and related to the house, including salvaged objects, photographs and newspaper clippings about Ng's life and work.
It is on at the NUS Museum until Feb 3 next year.
Home of late sculptor Ng Eng Teng 'up for grabs'
Published on Nov 25, 2012
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/sunday/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/ST_20121125_KHNG_3407146e.jpg
The home of the late Ng Eng Teng, the artist known as the grandfather of Singapore sculpture, at 106 Joo Chiat Place. The new owners of the property will be opening it to the public this Thursday from 2pm to 8pm, before the wrecking ball relegates it to the back burners of memory. -- ST FILE PHOTO
By Wong Kim Hoh Senior Writer
Fancy a piece of the home of the late Ng Eng Teng, the artist known as the grandfather of Singapore sculpture?
Then grab your tools and head down to 106 Joo Chiat Place this Thursday from 2pm to 8pm - before the wrecking ball relegates the old bungalow to the back burners of memory.
The new owners of the property - which the Cultural Medallion winner also used as his art studio - will be opening it to the public.
"Windows, doors, walls and everything that makes the foundation of the house has to go," says Mr Edmond Wong, 29, a director of Kim Choo Holdings, which bought the place in 2008.
Representatives of community art project Awaken The Dragon will also be there.
They will be salvaging wood from the dismantled house and use it to rouse Singapore's last two dragon kilns at Jalan Bahar in Jurong.
The group hopes to fire 3,000 pottery pieces by Singaporeans before the Year of the Dragon draws to a close on Feb 9 next year.
"Symbolically, this will be Ng Eng Teng's final contribution to the art scene in Singapore," says Mr Wong.
Although best known for his sculptures such as the Mother-And- Child bulbous bronze outside Far East Shopping Centre, Ng, who trained in Singapore and Britain, was also an accomplished potter.
For several years until the early 1990s, a group of ceramists called the Studio 106 Group would gather at his house to discuss artistic techniques. They also fired their works at the now defunct Sam Mui Kang Pottery in Ang Mo Kio which had a dragon kiln.
Mr Wong is overseeing the demolition of the late artist's home and studio with a heavy heart.
Ever since it was bought by his family's Kim Choo Holdings - which has business interests in food, fashion and heritage - he has been trying to conserve the studio- house where Ng created many of his key sculptural pieces.
Plans to turn it into a space for artists-in-residence - which was what it was for several years until 2004 - fell through.
Earlier this year, a potential donor indicated support for a project to dismantle and relocate the house elsewhere.
Known architecturally as a rumah panggung (stage house), the bungalow - with hipped-gable roofs and elevated on stilts about 1.5m high - is one of the few traditional Sumatran houses left in Singapore.
Discussions were initiated with a team from the architecture school at the National University of Singapore (NUS). However, the idea to save the house came to nought.
The site, which together with an adjoining plot of land measures 876 sq m, will be developed into four terraced houses.
"There is so much artistic history to this place. I tried my best but unfortunately..." Mr Wong says, trailing off.
He takes comfort in the fact that he managed to work with the NUS Museum earlier this year to document the house where Ng lived and worked from 1966, when he returned from Ireland, until his death in 2001.
The result is an exhibition, 106 Joo Chiat Place, which showcases materials gathered from and related to the house, including salvaged objects, photographs and newspaper clippings about Ng's life and work.
It is on at the NUS Museum until Feb 3 next year.