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

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

How Libraries Think

with the Staff of Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi Christchurch City Libraries

Performance Work

Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival

May 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

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