Grains of Thought was an installation commissioned for the opening of the Contemporary Project Gallery at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in 2015. The form of the sculpture is derived from everyday life—a single grain of rice, a simple, quotidian but vital staple in Asia which has profoundly shaped the cultures and histories of this region. The artist researched into various types of grains and finally decided on the Hom Mali rice as the form. The significance of a small grain of rice is magnified both in scale and presence, which is intensified with the patina of Tow’s painterly brushwork. The sculptures were made in stages that serendipitously echo the layered structure of a rice grain: from a milled core, layers of carbon fibre were applied before Tow finally applied multiple layers of paint, not unlike the structure of a rice grain from endosperm to germ, to bran then husk. Eng Tow was born in Singapore in 1947. She graduated from the Winchester School of Art in Hampshire, with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 1972. In 1974, Eng Tow received her Master of Arts from Royal College of Art, London. After graduating, she worked as a freelance textile designer in London, and lectured at various institutions including the Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education, Trent Polytechnic, West Surrey College of Art and Goldsmiths College, UK.
