MIRANDA JULY IS AN ARTISTIC POLYMATH. CAMERA D'OR-WINNING FILMMAKER, AUTHOR, INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ARTIST AND INSTIGATOR OF CREATIVE ACTIVITY TO ALL.

Miranda July’s career has been nothing short of remarkable. From her time spent in Portland releasing records on Kill Rock Stars to writing and directing the Camera d’Or-winning indie flick Me and You and Everyone We Know, not to mention her short stories in No One Belongs Here More Than You, the quirkily beautiful 35-year-old talent has pretty much traversed a myriad of artistic outlets as easily as others master a single vocation. And that’s not even mentioning her lauded artwork that has been exhibited worldwide, from New York’s Whitney Museum to the Venice Biennale. It’s a strange trajectory, but as she puts it: “There’s no one else apart from me looking out for this weird career."

July’s entire outlook seems to be that of engagement and participation, as if the
viewer is as much a part of the work as the work itself. In contemporary art practice this is normally aligned with some strand of post-modern art theory, however there’s something far more personal and somewhat less contrived to be felt in July’s oeuvre. As opposed to being derived and assisted by concepts and theories pulled from learned art institutions, her work appears to be the product of her time in Portland, where she moved after dropping out of University of California Santa Cruz a year into the program. “I didn’t really study anything! In the years before you had to declare a major. I didn’t study art, although I did a lot of performance using the school,” July recounts and adds: “I had a lot of friends in Portland so it was incredibly alluring. Not the DIY thing as it’s sort of known now but the Riot Grrrl scene with Olympia and Evergreen State College being at the centre of that. It was a lot to do with music, which is funny because it wasn’t really my thing but I just made use of all the systems and the energy there.”

It wasn’t merely the midst of the politically activated music scene, but the ideals and aesthetics of the ‘90s Riot Grrrl movement, with its emphasis on female empowerment, sexuality, community and activity, which resonated with July’s work. Participation, ownership and the illumination that one can engage were integral to some of her early projects such as her longest standing legacy: Big Miss Moviola. Big Miss Moviola, later named Joanie 4 Jackie, started as a video project to create a feeling that there was a community of female filmmakers. Starting in ’95, it still continues. “I started Big Miss Moviola a bit before I started performing. It was really all about other people. I was essentially trying to create some kind of feeling that girls and women were in fact making movies. I wanted to make films but felt too nervous. After working in Hollywood on 'Me and You'..., it made me feel that I was right. There needed to be some extra help for women making movies because it’s just so bleak. There was no camaraderie.” The idea behind Joanie 4 Jackie’s was one of activity: That anyone can make a film. “It was all pretty laborious and there were some real reasons why it was hard. But not impossible. The idea was very simple: Any woman who sent me her movie, I would send her a tape with her movie and nine other movies making compilations of ten”. The concept really took shape once she took Big Miss Moviola on tour. Moving away from simply screening the compilations and performing, it became about engaging the audience and turning them into filmmakers. “I did that for many, many years and I’d tour showing movies made by other women and then perform. And often doing something interactive. So often I would make a movie with the audience in which they would, one by one, go into a closet and say something and that would be shown at the end of the night. My idea was that you would come to the venue and it would feel as though it was all about you. That you were really special and it was YOU who made the night”.

This isn’t the last project in which she has invited the viewers to engage. From the adorable ‘assignments’ connected to her website and the anthology Learning To Love You More or the ‘you can do this too’ tone of the No One Belongs Here More Than You website. Even the simplicity of her signature scrawl which adorns much of her work The Hallway shown at The Hara Museum in Tokyo, to her sculptures shown at the ’09 Venice Biennale seems to beg one to get involved. “It’s a reminder to do the odd smaller project that doesn’t look as if it’s part of your larger plan. For example, a friend of mine, Will Rogen, has a project called 'The Thing'. It is essentially a magazine subscription but one receives pieces of art. For the first issue, I made these window shades that used the same black copy kind of text. It was just kind of a random thing but I’ve found myself using it over and over since.”

It’s these elements of engagement that often make one feel as if one is spending a moment in the mind of July. The more of her work one sees, the closer one feels. Sentences that adorn one of her Eleven Heavy Things exhibition as part of the Venice Biennale such as The Guilty One, The Guiltier One, The Guiltiest One, or stories within her books, most notably The Swim Team in which swimming lessons are given on a living room floor, all seem especially telling about the way she would like the work, and by extension the world, to live. Indeed the sculptures in the Venice Biennale were made to be photographed in the hope that they would be disseminated via emails and online. Intimate moments spread to as many individuals as possible, be they friends or neighbors or simply those who are interested. “The sculptures were built to be posed with. So you could stand on them or put your head or arm in them. The idea being that if you’re posing with something, you’re going to want to take a picture with it, and if you take a picture you’re going to want to share it.”

Even the worldview within Me and You and Everyone We Know where the characters’ infelicities, quirks and intimacies are beautifully rendered belie the machinations and drives of the artist. For many practitioners the work/world divide is something integral although irrevocably problematic. And although this may be part of July’s appeal, it seems that, as with many artists, the balance between intimacy and symbolism refuses to be abated. “That seems to be the very thing that people both love and love to hate. I am concerned but there’s nothing I can really do because that’s my work. It’s how I’ve always done things.” She continues: “Sometimes I write myself a little reminder that says ‘move in symbols’. Partly for that reason but also because it’s liberating. Nonetheless everything that will be coming out in the next few years just feels like I’m throwing myself to the lions. I really could just cry about it, that’s how upsetting it is to me, but I don’t know what else to do. It seems to be so part of the work, you know?”

July’s work has managed to inspire and engage countless individuals. In a world
in which there’s a very conspicuous inequality within the arts, especially in the worlds of fine art and film, this can be nothing but applauded. Although new works are in the pipeline, her next film, Satisfaction, is in pre-production and her novel in the works, one may have to wait for the next major installment from July. However, if you’re impatient, July has imparted a rather agreeable piece of advice buried beneath a mischievous chuckle: “Ignore me for a while, but in the meantime re-read that book (No One Belongs Here More Than You)!” Want one better? Check
out Joanie 4 Jackie. And if you’re a filmmaker, spread the word. Or get involved. Maybe even both. Believe it or not, whoever you are, the world may indeed be yours for the taking.

joanie4jackie.com & mirandajuly.com