Written by:
Twilight Greenaway
Performance
Miranda July doesn't like the term spoken-word. Nor does she want her work to be referred to as performance art. When July takes the stage, she does so to transcend the barriers of performance.
"I reenact things you've seen a million times before," she says, "straight things, TV things, and medical things: These are the transactions that we all participate in and memorize accidentally. Then I wiggle my hand and wink and you know that everything I just said was in code, and the real truth is the sick or incredible way you feel."
The characters she brings to life, in theaters and music venues around the country, are at once densely layered and elusive. July does not separate her art from her identity as a queer woman, and while many of her characters seem to be a melding of gender, religion, age and sexuality, her work manipulates mainstream culture in a way that many lesbians can understand. In addition to her performance work, or "live movies," this Portland, Ore. Resident also created Big Miss Moviola, a non-selective video chain letter. Big Miss Moviola is a network for lesbians and other women filmmakers from around the country to exchange their films. The project has now branched off to include an edited commercial venture called the Co-Star Tapes. For more information on Big Miss Moviola, write P.O. Box
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