In Dirty & Disorderly: Contemporary Artists on Disgust, Anna Ting Möller, New Red Order, and Nguyễn Duy Mạnh use the aesthetics of disgust to understand the social construction of putrid and squalid things. Disgust has been interpreted as an evolutionary tool of survival to create distance between ourselves and that which may harm us, particularly foods. Beyond fears of contamination and filth aversion, disgust has also been weaponized as a tool of oppression, including in colonial and caste systems. To assign the label of ‘disgusting’ to something also implies ‘lesser than’ or ‘filthy’ statuses — intertwining visceral disgust, or the instinctual sensation of being repulsed by something, with the politics of moral and interpersonal disgust.

Representing bodies beyond skin — mutilated figures, deformed sculptures, and overflowing fleshy wetness — these artists and their art interrogate the limits of traditional kinship and capitalist and colonialist structures and rethink illusory certainties of human experience. Through ceramics, kombucha scoby, and photogrammetry, the artists pick at the sutures of social structures and uncover the ways in which the ostensibly innate responses of disgust can be (re)programmed.

About the Artists:
Anna Ting Möller explores the intersections of materiality, transformation, and bodily processes by working in symbiosis with a kombucha mother to create ephemeral sculpture/installation/performance that challenge conventional notions of life, death, lineage and care. Focusing on themes such as the sexualized and grotesque, Möller’s art critiques societal constructs, particularly the fetishization of the Other. Möller’s work has been exhibited at Liljevalchs Konsthall; ArkDes; ICPNA; Jyväskylä Art Museum; Gallery Tutu; and Urban Glass, among others.

New Red Order is a public secret society that collaborates with informants to create exhibitions, videos, and performances that question and rechannel subjective and material relationships to indigeneity. Facilitated by core contributors Adam Khalil (Ojibway), Zack Khalil (Ojibway), and Jackson Polys (Tlingit), New Red Order orients their work through the paradoxical conditions of Indigenous experience, and explores the contradictions and missteps that embody desires for indigeneity in the myths, dreams, and political foundations of the so-called Americas. They have presented their work at Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and Walker Art Center, among others.

Nguyễn Duy Mạnh’s artistic practice is a process of self-study and experimental exploration in the field of visual arts. Throughout his practice, Duy Mạnh is concerned with highlighting the vulnerability and disintegration of values and culture. He represents the trauma that disrupts an individual’s spiritual life in the face of ongoing reality. He has presented his work at Vietnam Fine Arts Museum; The Muse Art Space, Hanoi; Ngo Quyen Art Exhibition Center; Galerie BAO Paris, and The Outpost, among others.

Dirty & Disorderly: Contemporary Artists on Disgust is made possible by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in support of MASS MoCA and the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. Support for this exhibition is provided by Galerie BAO and The Outpost. Additional support has been provided by the Consulate General of Sweden; Williams College Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Williams College Phi Beta Kappa Society; Williams College Department of History, Department of American Studies; Williams College Department of Asian Languages, Literatures, and Culture; Williams College Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Williams College Department of Global Studies.

Nguyễn Duy Mạnh, Phách Lạc (Lost Souls), 2017-2023, exhibition view, dimensions variable. The Outpost, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2024. Photo: Chim non studio, courtesy of The Outpost.