Multi-disciplinary artist and Warp records affiliate Mira Calix has been working with art, music and the theory and concepts that come with it for the past twenty-one plus years. With her latest concept being a seventeen track collage album Absent Origin – we got pick her brains about her recently released album, project commitments, the interaction of art, politics, borders and the status quo.

Blake Creighton: Absent Origin is inspired by collages, what is it about collages that inspired you? 

Mira Calix: Collage is a way of re-contextualising materials. By removing an image or a sound from it’s origin, displacing it, juxtaposing or re-assembling it, it takes on new meaning. It’s the ultimate recycling art form. it makes something completely new of what already exists. It’s composition and pattern making. So much appeals about this practice, be it visually or sonically. 

As a multidisciplinary artist, how do you draw from various influences and not become overwhelmed by choice? What helps you stay committed to a project? 

That’s a really good question, it’s about narrowing down options, nothing more overwhelming than standing in the cereal aisle! I do a lot commissioned work, and usually in a commission you have parameters – the work has to be made for  a particular site, or with a particular group of musicians, or in response to a subject – like my installation for the Tower Of London to commemorate the end of the Great War – Armisitice. When working on this album, I created a whole list of parameters for myself, there was no-one else to do it, but by having those self-imposed restrictions – in my case – how would a particular visual collage practice translate into sound – I had a boundary to push against and explore. it’s a practice that really works for me. I do a lot of research, really think deeply about a concept, then head to the studio and feel my way through. 

Having released multiple albums along with other pieces and performances throughout your career, what is it about Absent Origin that is compelling to you? 

I think because for the first time in a long time, I was making those parameters discussed above – all by myself. They were my choices, but also in a way a game I was playing with myself, and play is a big part of creativity. I also discovered along the way, that by looking at others, I really was finding myself. It’s a very autobiographical album, and I guess that makes it compelling – to me at least!

You recently took part in walk with Amal, giving her your sign on Waterloo bridge, what did this moment mean to you? 

Speaking of the unexpected – that brief interaction with Amal was magical! I had been following her trip from the Syrian border for months and so of course wanted to go and see her when she arrived in London. I think Amal – created by the Good Chance and Handspring puppet/theatre groups is the most remarkable of all socially engaged art projects – of all time. She has not only transcended borders, but brought the issues of the 82 million displaced people in the world, and how we treat them, to the masses and to the front pages. Being in her presence is really extraordinary mastery of theatre. We all know and can see the puppeteers, but somehow they vanish – even for me. We went to meet her on Waterloo bridge – I had made signs – mine said – No borders, just horizons, only freedom – a quote by Amelia Earhart (aviatrix) and Amal stopped in front of me, and reached out to take it. She understandably usually doesn’t take unsolicited gifts – they are mindful of her being embroiled in politics, and to be honest I was only holding it up for her to read, but she took it out of my hands and showed it to the crowd and held it to her chest, at that point i could hear her minders over the radio – slightly panicked, going there’s writing on the other side!! and indeed there was – I had written ‘World Citizen’ to see her standing there with that sign – meant a lot to me. Because Absent Origin is all about displacement, edges, borders, and world citizenship. The eradication of borders is something I believe in firmly. No good comes of them.

Why is it important for art to be critical of the status quo and how do you as an artist challenge it? 

The status quo at the moment really needs challenging, we see a world closing up, creating victims and imaginary monsters in anyone who is ‘foreign’, but the biggest threat to humans is probably the environmental disaster looming, and that will not respect borders, and it requires, like the pandemic, global solutions and collaborations. I don’t think artists have to put this at the forefront of their work, but as humans, it seems impossible to ignore and for me – the situation is so urgent, that I want to draw attention to what pre-occupies. I am compelled to. If art is life and life is politics – well then, the work, in my case,  will often touch on politics… 

Your music and art has stayed relevant throughout your career, what do you view as being timeless and what are some characteristics of your work that make it so? 

Thank you. Relevance is a word that’s been on my mind a lot lately. I am a very curious human and I read and watch the world around me constantly, I’m always collecting information, random facts, stuff as much as I can – and we all have our particular interests and passions – but yes I’m a bit of sponge! I think being an artist, has a lot to do with observation and then reconfiguration, or trying to capsulise and distill those thoughts and information. Its a difficult question to answer of yourself, so Ii’m going to take your compliment and move on! 

It’s been 20 years since your debut on warp, how have you developed as an artists and how has the label helped you with your projects? 

It is! and wow I’ve really learnt a lot since that first album One On One! Technically, my skills have grown in untold ways, and also compositionally,I am a self taught musician, first with bits of electronic equipment and computers, and then around 10 years ago with notation. Writing for classical instrumentation in their own language, that has opened things up for me a lot, I think I’ve said before, it allowed me to start thinking of music vertically and not just horizontally like I did before with Cubase, which I used for this album – but yes, my musical thinking and ability has expanded in this time!  It’s been over a decade since my last Warp album, we released and EP Utopia in 2019 – but really after this long absence it’s lovely to be back home so to speak. I hadn’t worked on creating an album, I really had been absorbed with building those multiple speaker installation periods, but to conceive of an album and to send it to Warp and it being so welcomed and loved, is a nice journey to take.