MIRANDA JULY CURATES CONNECTION
SUBJECT
Miranda July
OCCUPATION
Actress, artist, film director, writer
INTERVIEWER
Sarah Darmody
PHOTOGRAPHER
Elizabeth Weinberg
LOCATION
Los Angeles, US
DATE
November 2017
ANTIDOTE TO
Convention
UNEXPECTED
Works on vacation
I told my daughter I was interviewing Miranda July. My daughter is four and doesn’t know what that means, but I needed a fall guy for why she couldn’t stay home with me to watch episodes of a dubious French animation about intergalactic popstars. Yelling over my shoulder to the tiny passenger in her bike seat, I justified the inevitable ride to pre-school. “I have to do a lot of work,” I said, “to think of questions to ask Miranda July—don’t you think that’s a lovely name?” “Yes!” she said, “and silly.”
“I think my ideas come a little differently. They’ll be knocking on the door for a long time and I’m not hearing. And then I’ll open the door and they kind of fall in fully-formed.”
“And silly,” I replied. “Anyway, Miranda July is a woman who does lots of things. She writes stories and books and makes films. She puts on shows for people. She likes to make things that are unexpected—like maybe you think the show will be one kind of show but then it’s not, and when it’s not, you have to think about your feelings a lot. Also, she likes people to make friends with strangers, and to find new ways to talk about love. And our bodies. And she also makes things that use different technology.” There was thoughtful silence from the back seat and when we arrived at pre-school my daughter asked, “Mummy, did Miranda July make my helmet?”
Miranda July does not make helmets—yet—but she did once create a limited-edition handbag called The Miranda, which included items such as conversation prompt cards, a faux-photo of her son, a thumb-drive of personal messages, a piece of a security blanket, a hidden $20 bill for cash-only emergencies and a tiny pocket for a single almond “in case of low blood sugar.”
Part of what is so roundly attractive about Miranda’s work is its ability to bring you to meditative focus on the smallest parts of daily life and human interaction—to a point where the ordinary becomes absurd or sacred or both. The handbag is just a random sentence in the dictionary of allthings-July, an example of how we can be delighted by the humour and levity of her art while also experiencing its uncomfortable intimacy.
Engaging with Miranda’s ideas in any form is to affix a virtual reality headset that gives the sense that you are viewing human interactions of love and desire through the lens of someone who is genuinely, as we might say in Australia and not always kindly, a “rare unit.” Her attempts to translate her unique view seem effortless and personal, but there’s a sincere discipline and intelligence to her creations that leave room for her audience to feel in direct dialogue with her. It’s this kind of curated spontaneity that ensures her fans are legion and intense.
I binged on Miranda before our interview and ended up with lots of screenshots of her words in the photo reel of my iPhone. Reading them interspersed with photos of my own life as it was unfolding, I ricocheted between ennui and exaltation until I needed the solace and glucose
