The Art: Body Bakery
The Artist: Kittiwat Unarrom
About the Work:
Bloody appendages hang ominously from hooks in the roof. Heads are crammed on shelves, preserved in plastic.
It may look like a meat market run by Hannibal Lecter’s, but the only thing you’ll find for lunch at Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom’s Body Bakery is bread.
That’s right; with a bit of flour, water, and a blood-like glaze, Unarrom has spent years perfecting gory, exquisitely detailed cakes and buns.
The son of a baker, Unarrom learnt all the tricks of the industry before enrolling in a fine arts class at Chulalongkorn University.
“I wanted to look for new techniques and materials, new non-traditional concepts for applying my knowledge and skills,” he said. Before long, he was visiting local forensic museums, and researching human anatomy.
You’d be forgiven if you thought Unarrom’s realistic renderings were designed simply to scare, but there’s actually a profound, if peculiar, philosophy behind them.
“I want to speak out about my religious beliefs and dough can say it all. Baking human parts can show the audience how transient bread, and life, is,” he told CNN Travel.
It’s a fascinating concept, and one that resonates as you peruse the body parts on display. By challenging our repulsion at what is only fresh bread, we inspire a new perspective on death and decay. That in itself makes a trip to the Body Bakery worthwhile, even if only a few may actually choose to take a bite in the end.
At its most peak, Body Bakery drew 100 visitors a day.
Unarrom doesn’t spend as much time there anymore. Instead, he works at the family bakery, where he returned following the death of his siblings.
Still, he finds inspiration in his craft, and continues to create when he can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKSO7m3-MH8&spfreload=5