CHUA MIA TEE PORTABLE CINEMA POSTCARD

Chua Mia Tee
Portable Cinema
1977
Oil on canvas, 76.9 x 78.2 cm
Gift of Times Publishing Limited
Collection of National Gallery Singapore
© Chua Mia Tee and family

Chua drew on his childhood memories of watching cinema through portable street carts in this work. For only a few cents, one could peep through slots in a specially constructed box and view popular characters such as Robin Hood, Popeye or Frankenstein in action as the vendor manually turned the reels.
This painting was commissioned for the Straits Times Group’s limited edition 1978
calendar, where Chua and fellow artist Choo Keng Kwang each produced six
paintings on the theme of vanishing trades in Singapore. The artists also showcased some of these works in a joint exhibition on this theme organised by Times Publishing Bhd and the Singapore Handicraft Centre.

Dimension: 150 x 150 mm