Noel Meek
Musician | Composer | Artist
Noel Meek is a Pākehā musician, composer, and artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. His works explore through performance a form for radical care, where care is applied in new and unusual places, honouring the sovereignty of all things, human and otherwise.
Meek has performed extensively internationally and throughout Aotearoa. He has presented works with The Adam Art Gallery, The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, St Paul St Gallery, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, SCAPE Public Art, Circuit Artist Moving Image, and The Len Lye Foundation. He currently sits on the programming board of CoCA Toi Moroki. He has taught workshops with the Christchurch Art Gallery, the New Zealand School of Music, and the Massey College of Creative Arts.
His music has been described as “improvisation with an evident state of mantra mind” by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and The Wire has said of his output: “The curse of contrived seriousness is often the Achilles heel of experimental music. Not in the hands of Noel Meek . . . the artist's vision isn't bleak or brutish [it’s] a playful, outright fun listen.” Susan Ballard, author of Art and Nature in the Anthropocene: Planetary Aesthetics, describes his work as being all “about alliances.”
Contact Noel here.
Selected recent exhibitions, performances, works
How Libraries Think
with the Staff of Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi Christchurch City Libraries
Performance Work
Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival
May 2024
Rua Kōhatu | Two Stones
with Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi, Tūhoe)
Single channel video
Masons Screen, Circuit Artist Moving Image, Wellington
Selected for the Wairoa Māori Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival
March 2024
Walking Scores
with Elliot Vaughan
Performance works
Performance Arcade, Wellington
February 2024
Kōrero with Stone (about Deep Time)
with Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi, Tūhoe)
Performance work
Performance Art Week Aotearoa, Christchurch
November 2023
Weather Assemblage
- with Rāhana Winiata Tito-Taylor (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whātua, Tainui),
Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi, Tūhoe), Rob Thorne (Ngāti Tumutumu),
Eamon Edmundsen-Wells, Sean Martin-Buss, and Len Lye’s Storm sculptures
Performances, artist talk, masterclass
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
August 2023
Mirror Three
with Yan Jun (CHN)
Installation and performance
Te Tuhi, Pakuranga, Auckland
August 2023
Tidalectics
with Olivia Webb
Performance work
Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Wellington
March 2023
Awa Orotau: River Attunement
with Oro Group
Three channel video
Circuit Artist Moving Image, Wellington
March 2023
Post-Anthropocentric Anthem (for Judy)
with Oro Group
Performance work
CoCA Toi Moroki, Christchurch
May 2022
Homage to Annea Lockwood
with Mattin (DE)
Soundwork presentation
Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice, University of the Arts, London
April 2022
Universe Psalm
Performance work
Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Wellington
March 2022
Resilience Training
with Olivia Webb and Oro Group
Performance Work
SCAPE Public Art
November-December 2021
Performance workshops
Christchurch Art Gallery
June 2021
Whenua Pūoro | Land Music
Performance, workshop
New Zealand School of Music, Wellington
April 2021
Artist in Residence
Movement Art Practice, Christchurch
February-June 2021
Ngākawau Kōrero
Single channel video series
The chronicle of <_______>, Wellington/Edinburgh
June 2021
Awards and Commissions
Circuit: Artist Moving Image Masons Screen Commission
Rua Kōhatu | Two Stones
March 2024
Vice Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship
Auckland University of Technology
2024-2026
SOUNZ Community Commission
How Libraries Think
August 2023
Susan Rhind Award for Composition
Post-Anthropocentric Anthem (for Judy)
March 2022
Lilburn Awards nominee
Song for Saint Faolán
June 2021
Susan Rhind Award for Composition
Universe Psalm
March 2021
Publications
Archive Fever - New Zealand Underground Sound in Fanzine Interviews 1991–1999
Marhaug Forlag, Oslo
2023
Homage to Annea Lockwood
Recital, Los Angeles
2023
The Wire: Adventures in Sound and Music Magazine
London
Regular feature writer 2015-2022
Education
Doctor of Philosophy - Art and Design
Auckland University of Technology
2024-current
Master of Musical Arts - Composition
New Zealand School of Music
2021-2023
Graduate Diploma in Music - Ethnomusicology
New Zealand School of Music
2013
Graduate Diploma of Teaching - Secondary
Victoria University of Wellington
2006
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - English Literature
Victoria University of Wellington
2003