![]() “I don’t confine myself to a single medium,” she asserts. Her recent sound piece Sap Sonic, accompanied by the text installation, Sap Script, for NTU CCA Singapore highlights her eclectic approach. “This scrutiny inspired me to explore my role within Singapore and the broader Southeast Asian context, led me to look into my family’s history with rubber plantations.” This exploration uncovered multifaceted stories of indentured labour and the complexities of plantation life, often overshadowed in mainstream narratives.ĭia’s art is diverse, spanning performance, video, photography and installation. “This interest actually came about after the golden staircase project, which drew significant criticism regarding my identity as a minority woman,” says Dia, who had stints as an artist-in-residence at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (NTU CCA) Singapore in 2022 and Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands from April to July 2023, the latter as part of SEA AiR- Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the European Union, a programme funded by the European Union. Her current body of work delves into transnational migration and colonial impacts in Southeast Asia. In case you missed it: Curated vision: Eugene Tan is at the forefront of shaping Singapore’s visual arts sceneįrom this initial controversy, Dia, who was awarded the Impart Art Prize by Art Outreach Singapore in 2019, has grown into a respected artist patronised by both private collectors and public institutions-her works have featured in exhibitions held at the nation’s Singapore Art Museum, National Gallery Singapore and the ArtScience Museum, as well as Australia’s La Trobe Art Institute. ![]() My approach was to understand the work through theory, which at that time was quite Western-centric in its understanding of space and the phenomena around it.” The comparison of my work to that of Sam’s, who was known as ‘Sticker Lady’ then, was unexpected. I didn’t realise there were different levels of understanding in street art and I certainly didn’t expect my work to be categorised as such. My focus was simply on using public space for my artwork to exist. Reflecting on that period, Dia says: “Honestly, I was unaware of the history and dynamics of street art back then. The work, as you would imagine, immediately drew parallels to street artist Sam Lo’s well-known public art project in 2012 that would see them arrested that same year and charged in 2013. The Jalan Besar Town Council labelled Dia’s work as unauthorised, sparking debates on the nature of public art. Drawing on her family’s history as goldsmiths, she chose gold to revitalise the public space. Despite her apprehension about the potential consequences and regulatory uncertainties, she spent five hours on this artistic endeavour. “I wanted to make an everyday space interesting,” she shares. She covered a staircase in her Jalan Rajah HDB block in Balestier with gold foil. In 2017, a 25-year-old Priyageetha Dia embarked on a transformative final-year project for her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Lasalle College of the Arts.
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