Ng Eng Teng's take on geometrical shapes

BULBOUS sculptures and the mother and child form are the trademark shapes of the late sculptor Ng Eng Teng, but what is less well-known is that he also experimented briefly with geometrical shapes. The latter was what caught the attention of NUS Museum assistant curator Kenneth Tay, who was fixated with the way the letters "ng" were repeated throughout his name.

The repetitive nature of his name "got me looking into the artist's body of work trying to examine his practice in terms of repetitions", says Mr Tay. "From there I was drawn to the 1+1=1 series. The repetition of '1s' is one reason, but also how the series repeats itself across its various iterations."

He adds that it's the only series by the artist that varies not just in form but also in media. "Interestingly, he's the only one who described the series as 'geometric'; none of his critics and peers ever used that term - they preferred to label it as 'abstract'."