Pinaree Sanpitak

Pinaree Sanpitak (born 1961) is a Thai conceptual and contemporary artist. Her work addresses motherhood, womanhood, and self by using the shape of breast to provoke the symbol of feminism and femininity.[1] She attended the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki, Japan, and Northern Territory University in Darwin, Australia.[2] In 2007, Sanpitak received the Silpathorn Award for Visual Arts from the Thai Ministry of Culture.[3]

Pinaree Sanpitak
Born	1961 (age 59–60) Bangkok, Thailand
Nationality	Thai
Alma mater	University of Tsukuba, Northern Territory University

Life and career

Pinaree Sanpitak was born in 1961, in Bangkok Thailand.[3] She was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand and currently lives and works in Bangkok today.[3] She studied visual arts and communication design in the School of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Tsukuba, in Ibaraki, Japan earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1986.[3] During her studies at the University from1981to 1986, she earned the Monbusho Scholarship from the Japanese Government. In 1999, she attended Northern Territory University in Darwin, Australia for Printmaking Workshop.[3] In 2000, she attended the International Artists’ Studio Program in Stockholm, Sweden.[3] In 2001, she attended the Headlands Centre for Arts in Sausalito, California.[3]

Influences and inspirations

Pinaree Sanpitak is one of the most compelling and respected Thai artists of her generation.[3] Her work is among the most powerful explorations of women's experiences in Southeast Asia. She demonstrates an intentionally feminine sensibility to her artistic practice. Sanpitak injects Thailand's burgeoning contemporary art scene with a strong female presence.[4] Her primary inspiration is the female body, distilled to it is the most basic form of the human breast.[3] Her work is modelled after attending the University of Tsukuba in Japan and got inspired by the colourful intensity of traditional Thai art. She uses various art techniques such as painting, sculpting, drawings, culinary art, etc. to explore the female form. A central motif in her work has been the female breast.[3] The inspiration of the female breast became intensified after giving birth to her only child 21 years ago.[5] While nursing her son she became conscious of how the breast upheld itself, she has looked beyond the mother and child connection to the breast as a metaphor for womanhood and self.[5] Her most famous work are breast-shaped cushions where people can rest on and explore their sensory perception.[5]

Selected works

Hanging by a Tread (2012),[6] consists of 18 hammocks, crafted from paa-lai, multicolored cotton textile that are also used for clothing, sheets, and items of ordinary life.[7] The 18 hammocks are hung around 10th century sculpture of the Hindu god “Vishnu”, which was created during the Khmer Empire. Vishnu represents the protector; meaning there would be no need to move it as it would protect the art work.[6] She crafted pieces that seem to float in to space; it is suspended in the air, which offers a sense of safety but also serve as ghostly reminders of lost lives.[6] This artwork was installed in the debut at Tyler Rollins Fine Art in New York, the hanging pieces were originally installed lopsided, which was not intentional, however, Sanpitak left them like that because it represented the unstable environment.[6]

Temporary Insanity (2003-2004),[8] a silk, synthetic fiber, battery, motor, propeller, sound device, dimensions variable. This was Installed at the Austin's AMOA- Arthouse, which explored the liminal space between genders while navigating between the silks of Thailand and the sands of Texas. This exhibition consists of 100 soft sculptures, and Sanpitak poetically muddles bodily forms and their associative functions. It is an arrangement of roundish cushioned objects, placed directly on the gallery floor. The objects present interactivity with the audience. They produce a soft audio effect that is mechanically derived of natural sound. “The shapes are more morphed, both breasts and balls”. The effects are not only a blurring of genders, but also a blending of the human and the inanimate. Temporary Insanity recalls Buddhist practices by inviting viewers to stoop on the group, which invokes the conventional gesture of paying respect and offering prayer. The warm colour and dyed silk objects evoke both flesh and the countryside, the world recalls the palette of Buddhist pagoda frescoes and ceremonial objects.[8]

noon- nom (2001-2002),[9] organza, synthetic fibers, 55 pieces. This artwork was presented in Singapore Art Museum collection. The word “Nom” in the title translates as breast milk, which emphasizes each term's nurturing function. The work's title and form both evoke earliest instinct of nestling into the soft, fleshiness of the mother's chest in search of warmth and sustenance. noon-nom invites the visitor to not only touch the artwork, but also be touched, getting up close and personal with a familiar form that is nurturing, sensual, and sacred: the human female breast. These soft sculptures covered in organza are part of Sanpitak's ongoing and extensive body of works across different media and genre incorporating the human corpus as a vessel and mound. She questions the attitudes toward the female breast in significance as a natural form that symbolizes nourishment and comfort as well as portraying sensuous and spiritual feminine body. This artwork creates a physical and metaphorical space where participants can freely interact with tactile sculpture. noon-nom illustrates the importance of touching and feeling as a means of reconnecting human relationships.[9]

Womanly Abstract art work: Womanly Bodies (1998),[10] made with saa fiber & ratan, Womanly Echo (1998),[10] made with acrylics and pastels collage on canvas, and Womanly Slick (1998),[10] made with acrylic, pastel, ink, and charcoal on paper. These installations resemble temple stupas, and are inspired by churches. It is a metaphor; “I’m trying to put the female into a religious context, because we are so segregated”. Womanly Echo and Womanly Slick have a collage overlaid in monochrome so that the Bessel is stark and hard- edged with contour lines. “Using black concentrates my work. Black represents melancholy”. She believes that black is just another colour, it is not about sorrow. Womanly Bodies consisted of 25 rhythmic sculptures standing 2-½ m tall, their stitched saa fiber material gives them a coarse texture and organic distortions in their repetitious stature. The first inspection of work spears to be less sexually changed, the direct reference of this is females are seen as sex objects.[10]

Solo exhibitions[11]

Year	Exhibitions
2017	Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, NY, USA.
2015	Ma-lai, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, NY, USA, Anything Can Break, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA.
2014	Collection+: Pinaree Sanpitak, curated by Jasmin Stephens, Sherman, Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia.
2013	Hanging by a Thread, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Temporary Insanity, AMOA-Arthouse (now known as The Contemporary Austin), Austin, TX, USA. Temporary Insanity, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center, Korea.
2012	Temporary Insanity, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, USA., Hanging by a Thread, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, NY, USA.
2011	Body Borders, The Art Center at Chulalongkorn University, H Gallery, and 100, Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
2010	Paper Traces and Flying Cubes, Art-U Room, Tokyo, Japan., Quietly Floating, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, NY, USA., Solid, Thavibu Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
2009	Breasts, Clouds and Vessels, Gallerie Alain le Gaillard, Paris, France.
2007	Breasts and Clouds, 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
2005	Jedis Vessels and Cooking, The Borderline Event - The Castle; Breast Stupa, Cookery collaborations with local patisseries and Aula Gastronomica de l’Emporda, La Bisbal d’Emporda, Girona, Spain.
2004	Temporary Insanity, The Art Center at Jim Thompson House, Bangkok, Thailand. And Everything In Between, Art U – Room, Tokyo, Japan.
2003	Breasts and Vessels and Mounds, Jendela Gallery, The Esplanade, Singapore. Metamorphosis, Gallery Art U, Osaka, Japan., Noon-Nom, Discovery Center, Bangkok, Thailand., Noon-Nom & Vessels, Babilonia 1808, Berkeley, CA, USA.
2002	Offering Vessels, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS, USA., Breast and Beyond, Bangkok University Art Gallery, Chulalongkorn University Art Gallery, Open Arts Space, Bangkok, Thailand., Growth & Void, Atelier Frank & Lee, Singapore.
2001	Vessels and Mounds, The National Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand. “Shibui” - Breast Stupas, Seinan Gakuin University Library,Fukuoka,Japan (on view annually).
2000	Womanly Bodies – Prints, Art2, Substation, Singapore., Continued – Compelled – Comforted, Atelier Frank & Lee, Singapore., Womanly Bodies in Print, Numthong Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
1999	Womanly Abstract, About Studio/About Cafe, Bangkok, Thailand.
1997	Eggs, Breasts, Bodies, I, Etcetera, The Art Center, Centers of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University.
1994	Breast Works, Silom Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand.
1993	Mother & Child: A Dialogue, Silom Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand.
1991	The Cross The Egg The Cow & The Squash, Silom Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand.
1988	Pinaree Sanpitak: an Exhibition of Photographs, Paintings, and Collages, Central Plaza Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
1987	An Exhibition of Photographs and Collages by Pinaree Sanpitak, Books & Beer, Bangkok, Thailand.

Group exhibitions[11]

Year	Exhibitions
2017	Converging Voices: Gender and Identity, Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, NY, USA.
2016	SEA+ Triennale 2016, The National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia., Utopias and Heterotopias: Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition., Anything Can Break, Xiushui Corridor Opera Theater, Wuzhen, China., Farewell: The Art Center's Acknowledgments 1995-2016, The Art Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
2015	First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian, The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA. Open Sea, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France.
2014	InSight: Contemporary Sensory Works, Anything Can Break, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA., Sensorium 360 ̊, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore., Rates of Exchange, Uncompared: Contemporary art in Bangkok and Phnom Penh – Breast Stupa Cookery Project: Psar Kap Ko Restaurant, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
2013	Female Power, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
2012	18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
2011	Here / Not Here: Buddha Presence in Eight Recent Works, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA., Roundabout, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel., Negotiating Home, History, and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia, 1991- 2011, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore., Stealing the Senses., Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.
2010	Artists Scarecrows Rice Paddy, Chiang Mai, Thailand., Roundabout, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand., THAI-YO, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
2009	Emotional Drawings, SOMA Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea., Breast Stupa Cookery with Bo.Lan Restaurant, Bangkok, Thailand (March 26-27-28). 2009 Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Korea., Virtues of the Kingdom, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
2008	From Surface to Origin, Gallery Soul Flower, Bangkok, Thailand., Ethics of Encounters, Gallery Soul Flower, Bangkok, Thailand., Emotional Drawings, Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Museum of Modern Art Kyoto, Japan., “Expenditure” Busan Biennale 2008, Museum of Modern Art Busan, South Korea., Traces of Siamese Smile: Art+Faith+Politics+Love, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok, Thailand. Breast Stupa Cookery with Higashiya and Le Bain, Le Bain, Tokyo, Japan.
2006	Artery, The Gallery and Concourse, Singapore Management University, Singapore., Breast Stupa Cookery / Artery Exhibition Opening, SMU Singapore Management University, Singapore., Tout â Fait Thaï : Thai Art Festival Paris 2006, Mairie du 6 e, St. Sulpice, Paris, France. Breast Stupa Cookery / Soi Project / Thai Art Festival Paris, Mairie du 6 e, St. Sulpice and Restaurant Le Trois, Paris, France., Little More Sweet Not Too Sour, 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand., Pink Bras Alert! / Breast Stupa Cookery, Charity in an A-B-C Cup - Fund raising campaign for The Queen's Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer, Bangkok, Thailand, The Sukhothai Hotel Ballroom, Bangkok, Thailand.
2005	Thai Festival, Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Rome, Italy., 600 Images / 60 Artists / 6 Curators / 6 Cities, Bangkok / Berlin / London / Los Angeles / Manila / Saigon., Breast Stupa Cookery / SOI PROJECT-YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE, Press Conference, Jim Thompson House, Bangkok, Thailand., Soi Project / Yokohama Triennale 2005, Yokohama, Japan., Pic-Nic in the Room, Collaboration with Dutch designers : Anthony, Kleinepier & TTTVO, Art-U Room, Tokyo, Japan., Breast Stupa Cookery / Pic-Nic in the Room, Jardin de Bagatelle, Kawazu / Urasenke Tea Ceremony / Art-U Room, Tokyo, Japan., Breast Stupa Cookery / Lotus Arts de Vivre – WPO Offsite Event, Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
2003	Next Move – Contemporary Art from Thailand, Earl Lu Gallery, La Salle-Sia College of the Arts, Singapore., The Spirit of Asian Contemporary Art, University Library Gallery, California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA.
2002	36 Ideas from Asia – Contemporary South-East Asian Art, Singapore Art Museum European Touring Exhibition., The 2nd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2002, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan., The 2nd Women's Art Festival, East Asian Women and Herstories, Women's History Exhibition Hall, Seoul Women's Community Center, Seoul, South Korea.
2001	A Shriek from an Invisible Box, The Meguro Museum, Tokyo, Japan., AsiaArt 2001/Labyrinths - Asian Contemporary Art – Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea, Contemporary Art Museum of Genoa, Italy.
2000	Glocal Scents of Thailand, Edsvik Konst & Kultur, Solentuna, Sweden., Euro Visions, Art Gallery of the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts,Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand., Les Semiophores, Collaboration project on the facade of The Town Hall, Lyon, France, 7 - 10, December, 2000. A proposal by Philippe Moullion of LABORATOIRE, Grenoble, France.
1999	Women Imaging Women: Home, Body, Memory, Main Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Manila, The Philippines., Alter Ego - Thai - EU., Contemporary Art Project, Art Gallery of the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand., Womanifesto 2, Saranrom Park, Bangkok, Thailand., Festival der Geister / Asian Spirit and Ghost Festival, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Germany. “Beyond the Future” The Third Asia-Pacific., Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
1998	Bangkok Art Project 1998, Ratanakosin Island, Bangkok, Thailand.
1997	Womanifesto, Baan Chao Phraya & Concrete House, Bangkok, Thailand., Glimpses into the Future: Art in Southeast Asia 1997, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan.
1996	The Spiritual and the Social, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia. Doris Hinzen-Roehrig, Pinaree Sanpitak, Judy Watson: Paintings, The National Gallery, Chao Fa Rd., Bangkok, Thailand., Huay Khwang Maga-City Project, Demolition site, Rachadaphisek Rd., Bangkok, Thailand.
1995	Kradaad : Contemporary Thai Works on Paper, Texas Tech University, Department of Art, Texas, USA Touring Exhibition., Weather Report, A touring group project initiated by Rienke Enghardt.
1994	Herstories, Dialogue Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
1993	Confess and Conceal, 11 insights from contemporary Australia and Southeast Asia, AGWA Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth and toured in Southeast Asia., Shutter Talk, Dialogue Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
1992	Small Works by 56 Thai Artists, Silom Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand., Through Her Eyes: An Exhibition by 6 Women Artists, Dialogue Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
1991	Art and Environment, The Gallery of the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand., Recent Works by Chatchai Puipia & Pinaree Sanpitak, The National Gallery, Chao Fa Rd., Bangkok, Thailand.
1990	Artists for AIDS: Artists for People with AIDS, Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand.
1989	Metro Mania: ARX 1989 Australia and Regions Artists’ Exchange, PICA, Perth, Western Australia.
1986	Via Tsukuba (3), AXIS Gallery, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan.

Collections

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, USA. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC, USA.Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA. The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia. Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan. Seinan Gakuin University, Fukuoka, Japan. Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan. Earl Lu Gallery, La Salle – SIA College of the Arts, Singapore. Singapore Art Museum, Singapore. Lenzi-Morisot Foundation, Singapore – France. Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Misiem Yipintsoi Sculpture Garden, Thailand. Ministry of Culture, Thailand. The Queen's Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer, Bangkok, Thailand. Vehbi Koc Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey. ILHAM Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[11][12]

Reception

Curator Jasmin Stephen says that Pinaree has engaged with notions of the self, feminism, and female experience for many years. Her approach to these issues is an expansive one, which has been shaped by her experience of showing all over the world. Stephen goes on and says “I think her works of resisting any dominating or ridged accounts of feminism while being of interest to scholars and audiences engaged in feminism throughout the world.[13] An unknown curated stated regarding Sanpitak’s Breast Stupa Cookery Project states “this process of exchange is like a rebirth; it symbolically manifests the life cycle” as the breast stupa creates are never the same or repeated.[14]

Femininity and feminism

Femininity on a Plate (Breast Stupa Cookery – 2005)[15] An adverse effect of Pinaree Sanpitak's signature work provokes hallucinating objects like boobs, whether fried eggs, bowls, lampshades etc. Sanpitak expresses her thoughts and experiences through breasts taking into culinary art. “It’s my lifetime project,” says the artist, who has collaborated with cooks and chefs from many countries to express the symbol of femininity on the plate.[15] Sanpitak worked with professional and amateur chefs to create meals using specially designed breast stupa- shaped cooking molds made in glass aluminum and glazed stoneware. The artist and her collaborator-chefs have hosted many of these events, presenting their five-course nourishing nipple- meals to audiences in Thailand, Japan, China, Spain, France, and the United States.[15] “The inspiration came when I gave birth to my son. I used the breast shape, which is a beautiful form, to represent myself and also to symbolize not only motherhood but also femininity, and womanhood. There is a deeper meaning because when you look at mothers breast- feeding their child, it’s about both giving and receiving”.[15] The recipes and cooking process are documented and compiled as videos and cookbooks. In August 2005, the first official Breast Stupa Cookery event took place at the Jim Thompson House, which involved four chefs in preparing a buffet banquet for 200 guests.[15] Over four years, Breast Stupa Cookery events has been organized over the world. The Breast Stupa culinary experience changes people's perceptions and make them look beyond what they see on the plate.[15]

References

1. Chanasongkram, Kanokpron, “Femininity on a Plate: Prominent artist collaborates with chefs to bring out the breast in food”. Bangkok Post: The world’s window to Thailand. (2009).
2. “Pinaree Sanpitak.” Pinaree Sanpitak Biography – Pinaree Sanpitak on Artnet. Artnet Worldwide Corporation, 2017. Web 13 Mar. 2017
3. “Pinaree Sanpitak.” Yavuz Gallery. N.p., Web. 13 Mar. 2017
4. Reilly, Maura, and Saisha Grayson. “Pinaree Sanpitak: Quietly Floating.” (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.
5. Morris, Linda. “Thai Artist Pinaree Sanpitak Embraces Female Form.” The Sydney Morning Herald. The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Oct. 2014. Web 13 Mar. 2017
6. Li, Jennifer S, “Finding Balance: Interview with Pinaree Sanpitak”. Art Asia Pacific Blog. August 12. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2017
7. Tewksbury, Drew, “DO: ART: Look But Don’t Nap in These Hammocks”. Los Angeles Magazine. Sept 1.2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2017
8. Nelson, Rogers. “Pinaree Sanpitak Temporary Insanity.” AUSTIN AMOA-Arthouse (n.d.): n.pag. Tyler Rollins Fine Art. Sept/Oct. 2003. Web. 13 Mar. 2017
9. Toh, Joyce. Siuli, Tan. Ng, Rachel. “Pinaree Sanpitak: noon-nom”. Sensorium 360 Contemporary Art and the Sensed World. Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
10. Pettifor, Steve, “Making Offerings”. Thailand Features. Nov/ Dec. 1999. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
11. PINAREE SANPITAK (n.d.): n. pag. Tyler Rollins Fine Art. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.
12. “Pinaree Sanpitak.” Pinaree Sanpitak Biography – Pinaree Sanpitak on Artnet. Artnet Worldwide Corporation, 2017. Web. 13 March 2017
13. Fairley, Gina. “The Female Breast Inspires Contemporary Art.” ArtsHub (n.d.): n. pag Tyler Rollins Fine Art. 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.
14. Cate, Sandra. “Conversation outside the White Cube.” Thai Artists, Resisting the Age of Spectacle (n.d.): n. pag. 2012. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.
15. Chanasongkram, Kanokpron, “Femininity on a Plate: Prominent artist collaborates with chefs to bring out the breast in food”. Bangkok Post: The world’s window to Thailand. 3 Apr. 2009. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.