Something wet and flabby awaits me when I visit Anna Ting Möller’s studio. Pieces of pearlescent matter, cut into large slabs like raw chicken, lie on a wooden tray; beside them, a pair of green gloves. It’s the most recent work Möller has been making while in residence—more precisely, it’s their young- est, still plump and yielding, awaiting maturation. There’s a strange aliveness to this thing, especially when seen among other works scattered around the room: a dark, lumpy sculpture drooping from a rope like a deflated O; a stiff but wispy wall piece that’s somewhere between a dusky hide and a cobweb; disembodied arms in suspension, gray and fibrous as if mummified.
Indeed, Möller’s art is alive, and their studio a nursery of sorts.

Since 2015, they have been growing a SCOBY—a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, or the primary ingredient to make kombucha, and manipulating it into sculptural, video, and performance works. Reminiscent of a thick slice of soured ham, this living membrane is the anchor of their practice, existing throughout their works as at once biologically united yet physically separated.

- Claire Voon

Bio:
Anna Ting Möller (b. 1991 Hunan, China) lives and works in New York City and Stockholm. Möller has an MFA in Visual Art, with a concentration in installation and expanded practices at Columbia University in the City of New York (2023), and a BFA from Konstfack University, Stockholm (2018).

About THAT:
The Here and There Collective is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to uplifting and connecting art practitioners from the Asian diaspora through weekly artist features, a studio grant program, and many community-building events throughout the year.