About the work
SR-22 (HD video, 11:16 min, 2025) is a digital performance epic that examines agency and desire in a world where connection is increasingly mediated through surveillance and simulation. Set in the aftermath of divine intervention, the protagonist embarks on a spiritual gauntlet to reclaim her drivers license and material autonomy. SR-22 revisits the concepts of Immaculate Conception and motherhood in the age of mechanical reproduction as her image disintegrates into a spiritual avatar. As the protagonist navigates the echo chamber of divine command, auto insurance, and artificial embodiment, she becomes a kind of digital martyr. By merging live-action performance, digital rendering, and immersive storytelling, SR-22 asks what it means to pilot a self through a world designed to take that agency away.
About the artist
I am a Chicago-based performance and video artist working in experimental media and game development. My work
explores digital embodiment and fractured subjectivity through immersive storytelling and video. I am a 2015
recipient of the Stephen H. Wilder Scholarship Grant, which supported my performance series The Silver Screen.
My video work has been exhibited internationally and my performance practice has been featured in
EMERGENCY
INDEX: An Annual Document of Performance Practice
, Volumes 8 (2019) and 9 (2020). I hold an MFA in Fine Arts
from Parsons School of Design (2019).
Elyse Johnson's Website