Who Is the Pink Nun?

Lisa Bulten, a Chicago artist and chastity advocate, has a curious 'collaboration' with a figure she calls the Pink Nun

BY: Interview by Paul O'Donnell

A woman walking the streets in a hot pink nun's habit might be taken for the opposite of everything a traditional nun stands for. But therein lies the genius, the impact and the sheer oddity of the Pink Nun, a chastity advocate and apparent alter ago of 27-year-old Chicago artist Lisa Bulten.

The Pink Nun, who drives a canary-yellow pickup with flame decals, can be spotted interviewing young people in and around Chicago about their attitudes toward sex and marriage or selling her signature Purity Products-t-shirts and underwear with slogans like "Keep it tucked, Brother!" and "Nature Preservation Site." We interviewed Bulten recently about her nun, her art, and the faith that lies behind them.

What is your relationship to the Pink Nun?
I work for her.

Okay. Well, can you confirm what the Chicago Reader said about you and the Pink Nun, concerning your identities?
What was that?

It says, "Bulten and the Pink Nun, who have never been photographed together, bear an uncanny resemblance to one another, right down to their identical nose rings and tongue studs."
Yeah, that's basically right.

What's the Pink Nun's mission?
She's mostly trying to promote the idea that saving sex for the right time is a way to respect your body, your mind and emotions. She's not just tied into virginity. It's more about not wanting to have sex when it's not the right time. Sex is not just a physical act for enjoyment, it's an actual sacred thing to be used to bond you to someone else, spiritually, mentally and physically.

How long has the Pink Nun been around?
I guess almost four years. She helped me at my MFA thesis show [at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago].

But she's not a real nun, right?
She's not in a cloister anymore. She did take vows at one time. But she left it because it was a little too traditional for her, and she wanted to do more of an edgy thing than was accepted.

How long ago was that?
That was about six years ago.

Can you say where that was, or what denomination?
I can't say where, but it was part of the traditional nuns of the Catholic church.

You've said you think the nun is a good symbol of chastity.
When we met up, I thought the Pink Nun was a good person to represent my messages. She had a lot of similar morals and ideas of the way sex should be looked at.

Nuns have been traditionally seen by many as anti-sex, which is not the same as chaste, right?
She's never gotten that response, maybe because of what she looks like, and the fact that she's blatantly talking about it. People see the irony and find that humorous. Some people might think it's sarcastic, but she's not going against any morality that a nun would have. She doesn't plan on being married herself. She's still a nun in that sense that nuns sacrifice that part of their life. I don't know that it's because they can't deal with sex. It's just that they don't find it the most important thing in life.

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