In a world where robots gauge workers’ bathroom breaks, attending to one’s basic needs is seen as an indulgence. Current buzz around “self-care,” a notion often shrouded in a mystical feel-good aura as though it were elusive as a rainbow, attests the dysfunctionality of a society where everyday life has become so toilsome that maintaining one’s wellness seems a luxury. Addressing such issues with morbid satire, Sarah Wilson‘s first solo exhibition, “Self-Careless” at East Hollywood Fine Art, evokes surreal stresses of contemporary living. Four paintings feature an anomic female protagonist who lounges in dishabille about her domicile, donning sheet masks, chain-smoking, and contemplating her own mortality with only a sickly dog and swirling ghastly hallucinations for company. In Mouthfeel (2019, pictured above), she flosses her teeth while a disembodied arm emerges from a larger vision and coats her lashes with mascara even as her eyeball pops out. Suggesting a sleep paralysis dream induced by compulsively punching away on the internet, Shitpost (2019) stars a smartphone-wielding humanoid whose face sprouts a monstrous arm holding yet another phone for enhanced posting capabilities. Complementing these paintings are several sculptures, including Waiting Room (2018), a functional lamp whose ceramic base simulates body parts strung like beads alongside old tires. Augmenting the playful sense of apprehension, a bevy of grossly oversized multicolored cigarettes and a mammoth denim chair evoke the imminent presence of some insalubrious giant that might return any minute and put us mere mortals in our self-careless places.

East Hollywood Fine Art
4316 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90029
Show runs through May 18
Limited hours; see gallery website for details