‘Golden Staircase’ girl returns with works 
to dazzle audiences

SINGAPORE — The young artist most famous for the notorious “golden staircase” in a Jalan Rajah HDB block is now showing a series of similarly-themed works.

Priyageetha Dia, 25, a student of the Lasalle College of the Arts, unveiled her new pieces at the Bachelor of Arts Graduate show opening on Thursday (April 27) at the Arts Winstedt Campus.

For the show, called Open Circuits, she is showing a pair of rubber slippers, as well as a set of transparent rubber sheets, all covered in gold foil.

“I felt the need to look into the use of gold in my art-making process,” she said, when asked about her preoccupation with golden things. She comes from a line of goldsmiths, but four generations back, her family ceased to be involved with the trade.

As someone down the line with no knowledge of the craft, she decided to pay homage to her family history. “I decided to implement the use of gold in ways I can work with,” she said.

She used around 30 packs of gold foil for this project. Gold foil, she said, is “delicate, malleable”, and has the “ability to disintegrate with touch”.

If the sheets look familiar, it is because a previous iteration of this work was on public display at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore’s Praxis Space and Project Space in Lasalle in March.

Her showcase includes a photography of the gold foil-covered staircase, which no longer exists.

Priyageetha voluntarily removed the foil, on the 20th storey of her Housing Board block at Jalan Rajah in Balestier, on March 12, a week after she had put it up.

The “golden staircase” had sparked lively debates on art and public spaces online, and even in Parliament.

That decision came after the Jalan Besar Town Council said what Priyageetha did was “unauthorised” and “not permissible” under its by-laws.

Priyageetha has since been approached by publications such as Female Magazine and art organisations including The Substation, asking her to work on various projects.

She intends to continue her artistic practice independently.

“After the incident, I’m more focused on personal intervention with public spaces,” she said.

“I won’t deny being affected by the whole ‘golden staircase’ saga — especially reading comments on social media. It brought up perspectives other than the dichotomy between art and vandalism. As a woman, being told to confine my art-making within the household space or being derided ... were some of the issues that affected me in some way. But nevertheless, I did have the support from my loved ones — and the public as well,” she added.