Monday, December 03, 2007

Miranda July

I often wonder if there's some sort of internal Art Switch that, once you trigger it, makes it impossible to stop creating art. Some artists I know struggle to finish the smallest task. Others create so constantly that it's nearly impossible to keep up with them. My friend, Justin Gorman, for example, probably needs an archivist at this point.

Miranda July is similarly prolific. Not only has she recorded with the band The Need, but she's also done a number of solo performance pieces, published books, directed the feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know, had her works presented at the Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Biennials. Oh, and she's recently presented a new performance and is working on a new feature film. Whew!

She's also got a new book out entitled Learning to Love You More, which draws from the responses sent to this website in response to assignments given by July and Harrell Fletcher. I'm giddy about reading this book and intend to pick it up next time I'm in Toronto.

More Synchronicity: Here's a description of July's short film The Amateurist:
A “professional” woman monitors an “amateur” woman (both played by July) via video surveillance, as she has for the last four and a half years. She has never had direct contact with the amateur, but creates a sense of communion through numbers, knobs and careful language.

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