A new multimedia art gallery exhibit is now open at the Rozsa Art Galleries. The new work, called Neoliberal Loops, features a wide range of media, including drawings, digital video, audio on speakers, and letterpressed ink on paper.
“My work explores mundane and idiosyncratic details that reflect society,” said creator Emma Johnson in the artist statement for the work. “Neoliberal Loops explores neoliberalism, postfeminism, and the economic precarity of the 2008 Recession in the United States.”
The various pieces throughout the exhibit expand on these themes. On a wall near the entrance to the gallery hang eight drawings of “recession goods,” while elsewhere “neoliberal truisms” flash by on LED screens or are letterpressed onto paper cards on display. Sleeping Jutta (Lost in Translation) references various depictions of women sleeping in pop culture, such as in the film Lost in Translation, in a critique of postfeminism, while photos of cherry blossoms, inspired by the same film, make a statement on “ephemeralness of the economy and its cyclical nature”, according to descriptions provided for the works.
The exhibition’s namesake is displayed on video screens throughout the exhibit. The video screens display loops of stock market crashes, Zillow listings, and ocean waves. “I was also really inspired by the French historian Braudel, who…talks about durées, which is just French for cycles,” Johnson said in a speech at the exhibit’s reception. “And so [Braudel] talks about cycles of history, so there are short, medium, and long durées. And one thing with the durées that I thought was interesting is that economists, left and right wing, agreed that a crash of the stock market happens about once every 15 years.”
The video loops were also accompanied by loops of MIDI notes corresponding to stock market numbers. This part of the exhibition was made in collaboration with the Mathematics and Music Lab (MML) at MTU. Robert Schneider, co-founder of the MML, described the music as a “mournful meandering melody…It’s a cutting-edge form of experimental music,” he continued, “It’s pretty modern…but also very far out.”
In an interview, Johnson said she was interested in bringing together philosophy and art. “The research behind the art was extensive, and I’m excited to continue working as an art scholar. I feel like Neoliberal Loops has married the artistic process and scholarly research together.” Elsewhere, she explained that another interest for the exhibition was “the tension between universal narrative and individualized lived experience.”
Students looking to experience the exhibit for themselves can visit it in the Rosza Art Galleries, located in the basement of the Rosza. It is free to the public and runs until Nov. 6. More info can be found at events.mtu.edu/event/neoliberal-loops-rozsa-art-galleries.
