'Because the fair isn’t a quiet space, you really have to trust your work', says the Thai artist

My first Art Basel: Pinaree Sanpitak

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In her sculptures, paintings, drawings, and large-scale installations, the Thai artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9902/Pinaree-Sanpitak" target="_blank">Pinaree Sanpitak</a>&nbsp;frequently addresses topics like motherhood, womanhood, femininity, and personal identity. Here, she reflects on the first time she visited Art Basel in Hong Kong and the challenges her work faces in the context of an art fair.

‘The Thai gallery&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1319/100-Tonson-Gallery">100 Tonson</a> exhibited my work at the first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong in 2013, but I didn’t go visit the fair in person until 2015.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1466/Yavuz-Gallery" target="_blank">Yavuz Gallery</a> invited me to install a solo presentation for the Insights sector, dedicated to artists from the Asia-Pacific region. We included a mixture of paintings, sculptures, and other materials, and called the presentation ‘Conversation in the Garden’ because there were a lot of outdoor works [installed inside]. There was, for example, a stainless-steel topiary [Breast Stupa Topiary, 2013] and a hammock made entirely of glass beads [The Hammock, 2015]. We had to use a small crane to lift it into the fair – it weighs 400 kilos. The gallery’s director and founder, Can Yavuz, encouraged people to sit or lay on it, and because you normally can’t touch artworks, they were surprised, like, “Really? Can I really do that?!”

‘Yavuz has continuously presented my work at Art Basel in Hong Kong since then and in 2018,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1456/Tyler-Rollins-Fine-Art" target="_blank">Tyler Rollins Fine Art</a>, a gallery from New York City that I’ve worked with since 2010, also started to show my works at the fair. Then, in 2019, I had a large-scale installation, The Walls, in the Encounters sector, which showcases large installations spread out across the show floor, presented by the Singapore gallery&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1284/STPI">STPI</a>.‘I had been approached to propose works for Encounters before, but I have to be honest: At first, I wasn’t so keen to put up my works at an art fair. It’s busy and fast-paced, and there are rules and limitations. My work is quieter and people often spend a lot of time with it, so this creates a challenge in such a context. Until I created The Walls, I had never felt that my large-scale pieces were appropriate for an art fair. I decided this particular piece would work, though, because it can exist in many different settings – in a chapel, in a long hallway. It’s very flexible in that way.

‘Presenting The Walls, however, was still challenging. There’s very limited time to install and I also couldn’t hang it at the “usual” height because then it would’ve blocked the surrounding booths. But I think that mimics life: When you want something, you often have to find a compromise. You don’t always get things exactly the way you want them. Because the fair isn’t a quiet space, you also really have to trust your work, and trust that what you’ve decide to show is independent and strong enough to take the stage.’

Top image:&nbsp;Pinaree Sanpitak surrounded by&nbsp;her work The Walls (2018). Courtesy of the artist and&nbsp;STPI – Creative Workshop &amp; Gallery, Singapore.

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'Because the fair isn’t a quiet space, you really have to trust your work', says the Thai artist