1pm – 1:45pm, Saturday 7 June
Toi Pōneke Gallery
Free
vegetable. machine. animal [Kieran Mongahan] and DSLB
Kieran Mongahan will be in the gallery performing with vegetable.machine.animal 'trio', which involves plants, a synthesiser and live drumming. Joining him on electronics, keyboards, domestic objects will be GUEST recording artist Chrissie Butler (DSLB)
This concert is family friendly.
Artist’s Biographies
Kieran Monaghan (he/him) is predominantly, and persistently, a drummer and percussionist of found sounds. He calls Te Whanganui-a-Tara /Wellington home. His first crude musical steps were in the late 80’s, playing drums in southern punk rock bands. Heading north in the 90's opened new musical domains such as theatre with Red Mole, and it’s little sister Roadworks, and the diverse arrangements of ‘free-jazz’ that tumbled from venues such as The Space. While continuing to play assertive music, alongside developing confidence in improvisational arenas, necessity also dictated that income be made by playing multiple pub circuits in working bands.
His project, vegetable.machine.animal, is the newest iteration of ongoing musical expression. It explores the intersections between spontaneous playing, electronic music, and science-informed inter-species collaboration. He co-runs the Skirted Records label with domestic and performative partner Chrissie Butler. Together they were the core of the outsider punk group Mr Sterile Assembly, and Nick Bollinger named them as one of the 10 great rhythm sections of New Zealand. Monaghan has toured internationally many times with the Assembly, and more recently with VMA. He has a long catalogue of solo, band, and collaborative recordings. He is a semi-regular DJ on Radioactive.FM. He remains happily hitched, and is a father to three daughters and one mokopuna.
DSLB is the solo project of Chrissie Butler (the shouty bass playing half of the now sleeping duo, mr sterile Assembly). DSLB is an offshoot from Chrissie's other band Ditzy Squall, DSLB (Ditzy Squall's Lunch Box) is a showcase for a love of long endings and the hum things make when you hold them close to your ear. Performed live, DSLB is an improvised mash-up of ancient record players, purring keyboards, kitchen utensils and found objects. Soundtracks for short films and hand drawn comics are also residents in the lunch box. Recordings are released by skirted Records.
GUEST
Saturday 7 June - 4th July
Sonic artist Kieran Monaghan presents GUEST, an interdisciplinary exhibition of sound, image and organic matter, which offers up a sonic practice for the Anthropocene.
GUEST was developed during the 2024 Sonic Artist residency supported by Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand School of Music and Toi Pōneke Arts Centre.
