Neoliberal Loops - Neoliberal Truisms (work in progress)

Emma Johnson in Germany, 2022, in front of the artwork of Birgit Brenner.

The second project will include truisms based on the style of Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and Birgit Brenner on the subject of neoliberalism and feminism. There will be numbers running on LED lights interspersed with 100 (or 365) truisms such that when text appears it is a surprise to the audience.

An example of text on an LED screen in Jenny Holzer’s work. https://www.hauserwirth.com/resources/2721-jenny-holzer-softer-targets/

e.g. of Neoliberal Truism by Emma Johnson: 

HAPPINESS IS CAPITALISM

Truisms will be printed at the CCCAC in Hancock, Michigan, USA.

Neoliberal Loops - Neoliberal Loops [the soundtrack] (work in progress)

 MIDI composition, 2025-2026

The piece is being created in Apple’s Logic Pro. These are the first 16 measures.

Neoliberal Loops - Neoliberal Loops [stock market crashes] (work in progress)

 Images from Wiki Media

1637

1869

2011

Neoliberal Loops - Neoliberal Loops [Statue of Liberty water] (work in progress)

 Some screenshots from the 3-channel video installation:

Statue of Liberty images comes from the Library of Congress archives.

Inspiration from Wavelength (1967) images:

Neoliberal Loops - Neoliberal Loops [Zillow + Billionaires' Row] (work in progress)

 Screenshots from Zillow

Neoliberal Loops - Sleeping Jutta (Lost in Translation) (work in progress)

I was inspired by Kacere and Coppola when creating Sleeping Jutta (Lost in Translation). However, I wanted to turn around the male gaze to confront the viewer.

Jutta, John Kacere, Oil on Canvas, 53 x 78.5in., 1973. Source: https://www.meiselgallery.com/artwork/jutta/

Lost in Translation (filmstill), Sofia Coppola, 2003. Source: https://michaelmoseryr2.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/260mc-coursework-1-lost-in-translation-analysis-cinematic-language/

Watch opening of Lost in Translation: https://vimeo.com/122514833

Emma Johnson, Sleeping Jutta (Lost in Translation), Digital Photography Print, 11 x 17 inches, 2026.

Emma Johnson, Sleeping Jutta (Lost in Translation), Digital Video, 27 minutes 30 seconds, 2026: https://youtu.be/RA4cIjnXvHQ?si=Ks969nUuMcPNv-4m

Brown Bag Talk, March 2025

Beauty, Excess, and the Grotesque in the Late-Capitalism Critique of Lauren Greenfield" is a presentation by Emma Johnson at the RTC's March 28, 2025, Brown Bag Talk at the Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center at Michigan Technological University in preparation for the SCMS 2025 Chicago presentation.

Filmed by Samantha Canevez for the Humanities Department at Michigan Technological University. Abstract: Embracing slow cinema and focusing on women are both underappreciated approaches to filmmaking when it comes to representing the financial crisis. One filmmaker who explores the financial crisis through these underused techniques is Lauren Greenfield. In this paper, I will explore three of Greenfield’s films through the lens of theorists Jill Godmilow and Nicholas Mirzoeff to show how alternative ways of looking provide a new critique of capitalism. Typically, films on financial crises are fast paced. Juliette Feyel and Clémence Fourton’s 2019 article “Post-2008 Films: The Financial Crisis in Fictions and Documentaries” argues that 2008-crisis films are represented in specific structures and patterns. Clichéd quick cuts show phone calls, graphs, and skyscrapers. These visual depictions are limiting, often excluding how crisis affects daily life and women. An alternative approach is found in the work of Greenfield, including the films The Queen of Versailles (2012), Generation Wealth (2018), and The Kingmaker (2019). I argue that Greenfield uses beauty, excess, and the grotesque to critique late capitalism. Greenfield favors mundane daily life with long shots of mansions with neglected pools, motivational posters in a vacated office, and dog poop left on the carpet after the nannies are laid off. She pays attention to women in a sub-genre where women are largely absent and uses slow-cinema techniques in a sub-genre that mostly embraces fast-paced narratives. Interviewees who would typically be depicted in quick clips are given screen time to humanize themselves. Greenfield juxtaposes excess with relatable reasons for its pursuit, drawing attention away from subjects and toward the system that creates it, coming close to accomplishing what Godmilow terms postreal filmmaking and Mirzoeff Visuality 2. Ultimately, Greenfield invites the audience to sit with her subjects, identify with them, and begin to imagine an alternative world.