Multimedia Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak has been working on a series of pieces titled Breast Stupas for over the past twenty years. These pieces draw a connection between the shapes of women’s breasts and the holy Buddhist dome-like architectures known as stupas.
In doing so, she criticizes the overwhelmingly male monkhood of Thailand, all while also exploring the intersection of Buddhist religious beliefs with gender and sexual issues, reflecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality.
"There is a lot of feminine symbolism in it. Each work pays homage to womanhood and motherhood, on different subjects and angles," shared Sanpitak about her Breast Stupas in an interview with the Bangkok Post.
One of her seminal works from the series is the Breast Stupa Topiary, where Sanpitak, in collaboration with the Jim Thompson Farm, erected permanent site-specific works in the form of large silver Breast Stupa sculptures in Isan Village, Thailand, where Sanpitak spent her childhood.
The large-looming sculptures serve as climbing trellises for edible plants such as gac fruits, butterfly peas, and ivy gourds. Here, the Breast Stupas reflect on the nurturing nature of womanhood and motherhood. Their mere presence, evidenced by the immobile sculpture, can help support the growth of those around them. These structures serve as a metaphor for how a single woman’s impact can extend beyond just themselves and their immediate family to their grandchildren and all the children that come after them.
Another one of her seminal pieces from the series is the Breast Stupa Cookery Project, a collaborative project where she created ceramic kitchenware in the shape of her Breast Stupas and hosted dinners for her audiences in gallery spaces.
In these dinners, she also invited chefs, pâtissiers, confectioners, and bartenders, as well as other ceramic and glass artists, to sit in and share their stories with the room.
The Breast Stupa Cookery reflects on how women’s roles have often been tied to the kitchen, which is a nuanced experience that can be both derogatory and empowering at the same time. For generations, the kitchen has been seen as a space to which women have been confined. A symbol of how their roles and lives are reduced to homemaking and domestic tasks.
And yet, as the Breast Stupa Cookery proves, throughout the ages, women have found ways to use this confinement to their benefit. Kitchens and dining tables have often been sites of sisterhood meetings for women, whether they have shared blood relations or not. These are spaces where women can share their stories without fearing judgment and grow together because of it.
Sanpitak’s pieces challenge traditional gender roles and explore the intersection of Buddhist beliefs with contemporary issues of gender and sexuality. Her use of a breast shape draws viewers in to reconsider the ways in which women’s bodies and experiences are valued and represented in society. In doing so, she not only empowers women in Thailand but also contributes to larger conversations around gender equality and global women empowerment movements.
