Mediated Disgust: Jia Chang's Multimedia Installation Art on Body Waste

Abstract: Korean artist Jia Chang's 2017 exhibition OMERTA garnered significant media attention, albeit with a lack of balance. Her use of body waste, such as urine, and her showing of women's nudity contributed to sensationalized media coverage as well as feminist art critics' often disproportionately focused review of the subversive power that such selections of topics can impart. Reflective of my own experience of having written yet another reductive feminist art review, this essay underscores the risk of hastily categorizing an artist only through the lens of gender politics, which can potentially deprive their art of chances to be appreciated on its own merits within the context of postcolonial South Korea. Central to this argument is the role of disgust as a mediator, accelerating the essentialist interpretation of Chang's work despite her avoidance of such standpoints. Drawing parallel to how contemporaneous feminist struggles against digital sex crimes and the subsequent anti-feminist backlashes were felt "disgusting" by many, this essay critically revisits the role that disgust took in shaping the public perception of OMERTA , seeking to demystify it as a socially, politically, and culturally mediated feeling.