Chua Mia Tee and Bayu Utomo Radjikin

Workers in the Canteen by Chua Mia Tee 1974

Oil on canvas, 89 x 126cm

Lang Kacang by Bayu Utomo Radjikin 1991

Mixed media, 141 x 104 x 120cm

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How did the artists address the above social concerns/issues through their work?

Chua Mia Tee has addressed his idea through a realistic and straightforward style. He believes that art must reflect real life and that viewers of his work and art must be able to understand what the artist is trying to express and his ideas. He has painted in the style of realism so that people are able to understand his intentions and ideas easily.

He has chosen a clear subject matter which can be easily related by local Singaporeans, thus being able to understand the issue. Also, he has made use of the exaggerated lighting, which focuses on the first bench of workers eating. He has also made use of lines, thought the arrangement of the benches and tables. These lines bring viewers' eyes slowly through the painting from the foreground to the background. The use of light and lines are done so to put focus on the workers eating.

Chua Mia Tee often uses photographic aid, so that he can arrange his subject matter and compositions. He makes use of such composition, which enhances and improves his expression of his concern and idea of work.

Bayu Utomo, on the other hand, has made use of the different materials to express his idea of urbanisation destroying traditional cultures. He has chosen to use metal chains that are chained to the sculpture, to represent the pull of the advancing technological development, and that these traditional tribes are unable to run away from the fact that urbanisation is able to erode their cultures. The feathers and the distorted expression represent the struggles of these tribal communities. The contorted leg of the sculpture also shows that it is rooted to the ground and unable to run away from the clutches of urbanisation, which are represented by the metal chains chained to the sculpture. The sculpture makes the viewers feel the pull of urbanisation and that tribal communities are changing and suffering. He made use of a more symbolic style of expressing his concern.