auto-sexploitation [wall series]
various works
2024


install shot from WORKING GIRLS!
Gallery 46 Whitechapel London, 2024
curated by Mathilde Friis x Lover Management


in his book ‘Psycho-Politics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power’, philosopher Byung-Chul Han describes ‘auto-exploitation’ as a state conceived under neoliberalism: “everyone is an auto-exploiting labourer in his or her own enterprise, people are now master and slave in one.” (2017).

for this series, Mercedes coins the term “AUTO-SEXPLOITATION” to describe the contemporary condition of monetised sexuality prescribed to the sex worker; the ultimate self-made labourer epitomising the neoliberal regime.

by repurposing iPhone images that document Mercedes’ everyday, she creates tactile digital paintings that draw on the dual nature of erotic labour. 
as an ode to the sometimes ghastly yet fantastical sex industry, the phone pics are printed onto sickeningly plush fabrics found in sites of this work: velour, leatherette, fishnet tights.

AUTO-SEXPLOITATION is about the reflexive complexities of the erotic labourers existence: the stories, the rituals, dreams and nightmares, the rewards, aesthetics, intimacy, vulnerability, pain, joy, humour, exhaustion and performative nature of being the auto-sexploiter.