Thailand’s Khao Nom Sao mountain is named after them. Fierce Amazonian women, legend has it, would slice one off to improve their aim with bow and arrow. And scientists at New Zealand’s University of Wellington in 2009 finally proved they’re what men look at first. Boobs, knockers, hooters, gazangas: call them what you will, breasts are big business – and they’re taking centre stage at a very unusual event this month.
This equal parts artistic and culinary initiative involves the use of special cooking molds in cast aluminum having the shape of the female bosom to make exceptional dishes. Chefs from local restaurants as well as amateur cooks can join the food making and tasting at Psar Kap Ko restaurant, on July 26 from 4pm. The event – free and open to all – is also a must for lovers of prahok, the main ingredient for these unconventional creations.
Breast Stupa Cookery: Prahok/Plaa Raa is an ongoing, collaborative project started in 2005 by Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak. Presented in nine countries so far, it’s part of Rates of Exchange, Un-Compared: Contemporary Art in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, a six-month series of exhibitions, residencies, gatherings and symposia presented across Cambodia and Thailand, curated by Roger Nelson and Brian Curtin.
But why breasts? Since 1993, while first breastfeeding her son, Pinaree Sanpitak’s primary inspiration has been the female body, distilled to its most basic forms and imbued with an ethereal spirituality. A woman’s body is a temple and, at the same time, it’s a mysterious land that offers solace, pleasure and nourishment. Here, the artist reviews this concept by combining the image of a sacred Buddhist stupa with the female breast, creating a sensual monument to womanhood. “It all started from a personal experience: I was trying to understand myself through the body, something which for me is both mental and physical,” says the artist. “Initially, it was a female body form and then it started crossing gender, relating to everybody.”
The topic of gender is one Sanpitak has been exploring for more than 20 years, using a variety of media and focusing on sensory perceptions. Her installations include soft breast-shaped cushions; sculptures and coloured breast-beads from Murano glass, and a site-specific project involving hundreds of winged origami boxes and glass breast-balloons dangling from the ceiling. “In my installations there is often a calm atmosphere, like in a sanctuary, but at the same time it’s imbued with sensuality,” says the artist.
Sanpitak’s artworks have been exhibited in galleries around the world, including Japan, the US, Australia, Germany, the Philippines and Singapore, but how will a Cambodian audience react in a country where bikinis are considered risqué? “I find that a woman in a wet sarong is even sexier than one in a bikini,” she says. “Thailand is not too different from Cambodia in terms of not showing but sensually revealing and this is extremely sexy.”
WHO: Pinaree Sanpitak
WHAT: Breast Stupa Cookery: Prahok/Plaa Raa art & culinary event
WHERE: Psar Kapko Restaurant, Street 9 & Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 4pm July 26
WHY: “Some people think having large breasts makes a woman stupid. Actually, it’s quite the opposite: a woman having large breasts makes men stupid.” – Rita Rudner