HDB

Priyageetha Dia rose to public attention in 2017 for her artistic interventions using gilded materials that not only questioned the place of art in public spaces but also its relationship to governance and authority. Her works, which had been purposely installed in public areas of an HDB Block, sparked national conversations on the differences between guerrilla art and vandalism. Lasting only a few days due to the reactions of some residents, the installations served to expand local discourses on public art and contemporary art practice.  

Dia reflects on the public reception to her work, “Golden Flags,” in which gold mylar blankets were displayed like flags from the parapet of each floor of the housing block. Likened by some residents to the thin joss paper used in funeral rites, the mylar flags were taken down by the governing Town Council after some complaints.

For her follow-up exhibition at a private gallery, the artist created an installation made up of similar mylar flags emblazoned with red texts inspired by the incident. In this way, Dia acknowledged the validity of the public’s response to her guerrilla art practice while raising questions about the underlying structures that influenced them. In HDB, (2018), the artist recalls the staircase and the parapets of her original site-specific art interventions. Because the HDB estate is so entwined with Singaporean identity and state authority, however, the autonomy of Art becomes subordinated by the site itself to the political notion of the common good and the distinctions between public and private spaces become even more delineated.