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. His films have shown at the Wairoa Māori and BFI London Film Festivals. He was on the programming board of CoCA Toi Moroki from 2022-2024 and 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