SINGAPORE – A high-profile national art controversy was just what the doctor ordered for Priyageetha Dia, who had up till that point been of two minds about an art career.
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Somewhat abashedly, the 32-year-old says: “It was when I decided I could do this full time. I feel like I had some sort of awakening. I could make more art from this. What I was saying meant something.”
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Since then, Priyageetha’s work has branched out to other modes, in particular CGI video works. In May, she was one of five Singaporean artists at the Venice Biennale, presenting The Sea Is A Memory (2022) as part of a group show organised by the Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation.
In it, blue is the predominant colour in a surreal aquatic world, viewed through the eyes of a plodding sea spirit that follows the journey of indentured labourers
crossing into Malaya.
Since Covid-19, Priyageetha has built an admirable momentum in her career, lining up exhibitions till 2026. In recent years, she has shown at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale in Saudi Arabia, Frieze Seoul and the Singapore Art Museum.
She has also just completed artist residencies at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands – where she has furthered her interest in sound, including adopting a new deejay persona DJ DIA.HRD – and Salzburger Kunstverein in Salzburg, Austria.
Next comes a master’s in artistic research at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands. The artist says she finds it easier to think about Singapore from a critical distance.
