The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.
Miranda July in Conversation with Jennifer Reeder: Tuesday, March 30, 6:30–7:30 p.m. CT
Click here to join via Zoom, Passcode: SAICVAP
This event will be live captioned by CART.
Join us live for a virtual conversation with artist Miranda July followed by an audience Q&A.
Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer whose work explores human connection, inclusivity, desire, fear, and fantasy. Across media, July's daring, urgent, and idiosyncratic voice finds unexpectedly accessible forms that reflect the poignancy and strangeness of the human plight. July wrote, directed, and starred in Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Caméra d’Or. In 2011, she wrote, directed, and starred in The Future, and in 2019 she directed the Sleater-Kinney video for “Hurry On Home.” July’s new feature film Kajillionaire is produced by Plan B and Annapurna and stars Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez. The film was theatrically released by Focus Features in September 2020 and released worldwide by Universal throughout the fall.
Her collection of stories No One Belongs Here More Than You (Scribner, 2007) won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and has been published in 20 countries. Her novel The First Bad Man became an immediate bestseller and was named one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015. July’s videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; and in two Whitney Biennials. In 2000, July created the seminal participatory website Learning to Love You More with artist Harrell Fletcher, and a companion book was published in 2007 (Prestel); the work is now in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She designed Eleven Heavy Things, an interactive sculpture garden, for the 2009 Venice Biennale; it was also presented in Union Square in New York (2010) and by MOCA in Los Angeles (2011). Her newest book, Miranda July (Prestel, 2020), is a complete retrospective of all her work to date and narrated by more than 80 friends and collaborators.
July will discuss her practice with filmmaker Jennifer Reeder (MFA 1996). Reeder constructs personal fiction films about relationships, trauma, and coping. Her innovative, award-winning narratives borrow from a range of forms including after-school specials, amateur music videos, and magical realism. Reeder has shown films at the Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, BFI London Film Festival, SXSW, Venice Biennale, and the Whitney Biennial. In Sight and Sound magazine, Bong Joon Ho named Reeder as one of 20 filmmakers he believes will shape cinema over the next decade. Her most recent film, Knives and Skin, was theatrically released in France in November 2019 through UFO and in the United States in December 2019 through IFC Midnight. She is currently in pre-production for a new feature-length film called Perpetrator, which is being produced by 30West, Divide/Conquer, and WTFilms.
Presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago and SAIC’s Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation.
Portrait credit: Miranda July. Photo by Elizabeth Weinberg.
Miranda July Website
mirandajuly.com
Miranda July on Nichols Canyon
Miranda July | Gagosian Quarterly | December 8, 2020
Miranda July’s enduring love for the weirdo in all of us
Alissa Wilkinson | Vox | September 28, 2020
Miranda July’s 15-Year Collection of Gifts from a Neighborhood Handyman Named Juan
Nick Haramis | Interview Magazine | September 18, 2020
Enter Planet Miranda July
E. Alex Jung | Vulture | September 2, 2020
‘I Shift Into Emergency Mode Pretty Easily’: Miranda July on How to Handle the Creative Obstacles—and Opportunities—of Quarantine
Naomi Rea | artnet news | April 23, 2020
'We are all lonely and alone and trying to connect'
Harriet Fitch Little | Financial Times | April 18, 2020
Miranda July on Her New Book and Creating in the Age of Coronavirus
Anna Cafolla | AnOther | April 14, 2020
Miranda July Shares Her Vintage Feminist Film Archive*
Miranda July | New York Times | January 30, 2017
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login
Kajillionaire
Miranda July by 
Indie Reframed by 
The First Bad Man by 
Feminisms by 
It Chooses You by 
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Video Data Bank: Miranda July
Miranda July’s films The Amateurist, Atlanta, Getting Stronger Every Day, Haysha Royko, Videoworks: Volume 1 and Nest of Tens in the Video Data Bank.
I’m The President, Baby
Commissioned for The Future Starts Here exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Miranda July’s I’m The President, Baby (2018) repurposes smart home technology to explore the storytelling potential of home and body appliances that track, measure, or respond to our activity.
Joanie 4 Jackie Archive
Joanie 4 Jackie is a large feminist collection of short movies and video art distributed as "Chainletter Tape" compilations by Miranda July. The archive was donated to the Getty Research Institute in 2017.
Eleven Heavy Things
Miranda July’s Eleven Heavy Things (2009), created for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, is made of eleven sculptural works designed for interaction.
Learning to Love You More
Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July’s Learning to Love You More (2002–2009) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.
SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977-98).