Cyan Meeks

Reclamation Meridian is a chronological interpretation of sensory field recordings taken from the perspective of the land, flora and fauna that are witness to the reclamation process of its post-natural landscape over several years based on fourteen acres of land in rural Marion County, Kansas. Considered as an ecological and cultural wasteland due to habitat fragmentation and loss, invasive plant species, stream degradation and soil erosion- the tallgrass prairie is the most decimated ecosystem in North America.

[Image: trees that are not native to the ecosystem are marked with blue paint by the Kansas Forest Service for removal]

Made in partnership with the Kansas Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and funding from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission.

Artist Talks & Workshops: On-site, (2019, Marion County, KS), Tabor College, School of Art & Design (2020, Hillsboro, Kansas) & School of Architecture & Design, University of Kansas (2020, Lawrence, KS)

Press: “Multimedia Project Promotes Stewardship, Artistry,” (2019, Peabody Gazette)

Phainesthai is a visual and listening experience exploring the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve that is located at the geographical center of the United States and is considered one of the most scarce and endangered ecosystems in the world. The film is an experiential non-verbal documentary addressing how geological and ecological memory can engage individual experience by the embodiment of place with human understanding and aspirations. Shot in collaboration with time-lapse photographer Luke McKinney.

Made with the support of the Tallgrass Artist Residency and in partnership with the Kansas Creative Arts Commission, Center for Living Education & the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Awards: Best Experimental Film, ARFF International (2019, Amsterdam, Netherlands), Award for Photography, Visions of the Flint Hills (2019, Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, MO)

Exhibitions: Charlotte Street Foundation, solo screening (May 7-8, 2020, Kansas City, MO), Dumbo Film Festival (2019, Brooklyn, NY), World of Film International Festival (2019, Glasgow, Scotland), Lineage and Impact at Haw Contemporary Stockyards (2019, Kansas City, MO), Flora (2019, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS), Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art (2018, Manhattan, KS), Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (2018, Strong City, KS) & The Bank Art Space (2018, Matfeild Green, KS)

Press: “Lineage and Impact,” KC Studio Magazine, Kansas City, MO (2019)

In 2017, Cyan Meeks co-founded The Union Library as an affordable artist workspace, exhibition space, performance venue and sound recording studio to serve our local community who would not have access to these creative opportunities and experiences otherwise. Hosting a series of monthly events throughout the year provides artists and performers the space and resources needed to obtain their goals and to build their individual followings while contributing to the cohesion of our local creative communities. It has served nationally known artists who would not have exhibited or performed in Kansas City without access to this alternative space.

Image: Union Library, monthly life drawing session with award-winning choreographer and performance artist Mary Pat Letourneau

Exhibiting artists have included: Bill Daniel (photographer, filmmaker); Adam Morosky (performance, sound artist), John Bender (performance artist, pioneer of minimalist synth); Lucas Abela (performance, sound artist); David Ford (installation, performance artist), Mark Smelzer (fiber, performance artist); Street Sects (musical performance group); Paradot (sound, performance artists); Ed Lesyk (sculpture); Damian Blake (illustrator, performance artist); Bath Consolidated (sound, performance artist); King of Herrings (sound, performance artist); Freight Train Rabbit Killer (musical performance group); Rachel Christia (sound, performance artists); Jason Zed (performance artist)

Broadcast: MTV United States, MTV Asia & MTV Africa

Press: “Unlikely Love Story in New Video Feed My Brain,” (2018, MXDWN Entertainment Magazine, LA, CA) & “Radar State, Radkey, Milkdrop- The Best Local Music Videos,” (2018, The Pitch, Kansas City, MO)

50” x 36.5”, Archival Print

Exhibition: Casting Shadows, (2017, Artspace, KC, MO)

A photographic collage produced during the conceptualizing stage of the collaborative project Downstream with artist Karen McCoy (https://www.karen-mccoy.com). initiated by a shared response to the first-hand experience of the overwhelming effects of the current international waste crisis. The objective of the project was to conjure this same emotive reaction in viewers as the artists experienced. In the preliminary stage, both artists conversed by exchanging sketches and images that depicted a feeling rather than delineating an aesthetic, illustrating a physical object or a technical approach. The debris field within an image by Alan R. Moller in meteorologist H. Michael Mogil’s book Tornados made an impression on McCoy who took a quick snapshot of the page while installing her exhibition at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas and sent it to Meeks who in response made this digital photographic collage.

Development of a project-based internship that brought together local Kansas City college students and refugees to collaboratively create a series of short videos to familiarize incoming refugees with using public transit, opening bank accounts, renting an apartment, and preparing for job interviews.

Screenings: Narrow Margins (Artspace, Kansas City, MO), Photo Forum (Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO) & Elctromediascope (Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO)

Under the pseudonym Cinemaphonic, Cyan Meeks produced a live video projection performance for Charlotte Street Foundation’s exhibition of collaborative time-based media works incorporating live music sets and video projections with sound artists Gemini Revolution.

Exhibition: Illum-a-phonic, Charlotte Street Foundation

Broadcast: MTV United States & Apple Music

Press: “Radkey Leap Into Comic Book for Stunning ‘Romance Dawn’ Video” (2013, Spin Magazine, International) & “Radkey’s Super Stylish Video ‘Romance Dawn’ Video” (2013, NME Magazine, International)

Cyan Meeks: Founder & Curator, 2005-09, Mercy Seat Gallery, 210 East 16th Street, KC, MO 64108 

Image: David Ford, Your Fear, from I Like this Country, 2008 (Immersive presidential election night performance, 11/4/2008):

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2008/11/05/dispatch-from-election-night-david-fords-i-love-this-country-exhibit-at-mercy-seat

Curated 50 solo/ group art exhibitions over the course of 5 years with live music events in the Mercy Seat Alley. Artists included: David Ford, Luke Rocha, SIKE, GEAR, Molly Murphy and Renée Cinderhouse. Musical guests included: Hearts of Darkness, Rich Boys, Siddhartha, The Good Foot, Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, The Haunted Creepies, and Joe Good.

Excerpt from a performance duration of (01:22:36)

Exhibition: Planetarium, The Dirt Gallery

Cinemaphonic is a multi-media audiovisual performance group who has performed in over seventy exhibitions and events to audiences throughout the Midwest since 2012 whose tag line is "A sonic voyage through the screen of the mind." It is an audiovisual odyssey that taps into the subconscious of Generation Media by communicating through sourced cultural relics of cinematic moments and auditory artifacts to induce specific emotive responses. It is an exploration of re-contextualizing visual and auditory nostalgia into something that speaks of cultural values, sometimes profound, at times facetious- even beautiful.

[Exhibition: The Union, Kansas City, MO]

Cinemaphonic Members:

Visuals/ Installation/ Auditory Ambience: Cyan Meeks

Sonic Mischief: Stephen Cruz

Sourced Cultural Relics: Sid & Nancy (1986) Alex Cox; Dead Presidents (1995) Albert Hughes

Broadcast: MTV Asia, MTV France, MTV America Latina, MTV Nederland, MTV Brasil & MTV United States

Cinemaphonic is a visual/aural performance group who produced a live video projection performance for the exhibition of experimental and boundary pushing sound artists.

Exhibition: Outer Reaches, The Record Bar

Visuals/ Installation/ Auditory Ambience: Cyan Meeks & Stephen Cruz

Exhibition: Dante Fascell Visitors Center Gallery, Key Biscayne National Park

Grant and residency awarded by Key Biscayne National Park and the National Park Service.

Cinemaphonic is a multi-media audiovisual performance group who has performed in over seventy exhibitions and events to audiences throughout the Midwest since 2012 whose tag line is "A sonic voyage through the screen of the mind." It is an audiovisual odyssey that taps into the subconscious of Generation Media by communicating through sourced cultural relics of cinematic moments and auditory artifacts to induce specific emotive responses. It is an exploration of re-contextualizing visual and auditory nostalgia into something that speaks of cultural values, sometimes profound, at times facetious- even beautiful.

Exhibition: The Crystal Method, Riot Room, Kansas City, MO

Cinemaphonic Members:

Visuals/ Installation/ Auditory Ambience: Cyan Meeks

Sonic Mischief: Stephen Cruz

Sourced Cultural Relics: Wild Style (1983) Charlie Ahearn; For the Love of Zero (1927) Robert Florey

Visiting Artist & Advisor for students who produced the “Douglass-Sumner Audio Heritage Project,” (Sumner Academy, Kansas City, KS)

National Broadcast: Independent Short Films Series, IFC (Independent Film Channel)

Awards & Exhibitions: Bandits Mages Video Festival (Bourges, France); New York Underground Film Festival (New York City, NY); Chicago Underground Film Festival (Chicago, IL); First Place Experimental Video, South Beach Film Festival (Miami, FL)

National Broadcast: IFC (Independent Film Channel, USA)

First place award, Best Music Video (Spinner.com, Global)

Aural/Visual Set Design for Revolver, an underground aural/visual culinary experience performed four times a year with chef Wes Gartner of Voltaire.

Image: "Welcome Visitors," video installation detail produced for Revolver's Brazil (Terry Gilliam) inspired environmental culinary experience.

Cinemaphonic is a multi-media audiovisual performance group who has performed in over seventy exhibitions and events to audiences throughout the Midwest since 2012 whose tag line is "A sonic voyage through the screen of the mind." It is an audiovisual odyssey that taps into the subconscious of Generation Media by communicating through sourced cultural relics of cinematic moments and auditory artifacts to induce specific emotive responses. It is an exploration of re-contextualizing visual and auditory nostalgia into something that speaks of cultural values, sometimes profound, at times facetious- even beautiful.

Exhibition: The Riot Room, Kansas City, MO

Cinemaphonic Members:

Visuals/ Installation/ Auditory Ambience: Cyan Meeks

Sonic Mischief: Stephen Cruz

Sourced Cultural Relics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) Sergio Leone; Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola

Exhibitions: New Directors/ New Films (MoMA, New York City, NY) & Sundance Film Festival (Park City, UT)

Cinemaphonic is a multi-media audiovisual performance group who has performed in over seventy exhibitions and events to audiences throughout the Midwest since 2012 whose tag line is "A sonic voyage through the screen of the mind." It is an audiovisual odyssey that taps into the subconscious of Generation Media by communicating through sourced cultural relics of cinematic moments and auditory artifacts to induce specific emotive responses. It is an exploration of re-contextualizing visual and auditory nostalgia into something that speaks of cultural values, sometimes profound, at times facetious- even beautiful.

Exhibition: The Record Bar, Kansas City, MO

Cinemaphonic Members:

Visuals/ Installation/ Auditory Ambience: Cyan Meeks

Sonic Mischief: Stephen Cruz

Sourced Cultural Relics: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick; Karate Kid (1984) John G. Avildsen

Cinemaphonic is a multi-media audiovisual performance group who has performed in over seventy exhibitions and events to audiences throughout the Midwest since 2012 whose tag line is "A sonic voyage through the screen of the mind." It is an audiovisual odyssey that taps into the subconscious of Generation Media by communicating through sourced cultural relics of cinematic moments and auditory artifacts to induce specific emotive responses. It is an exploration of re-contextualizing visual and auditory nostalgia into something that speaks of cultural values, sometimes profound, at times facetious- even beautiful.

Exhibition: The Mini Bar, Kansas City, MO

Cinemaphonic Members:

Visuals/ Installation/ Auditory Ambience: Cyan Meeks

Sonic Mischief: Stephen Cruz

Sourced Cultural Relics: Looney Tunes (1952) Tex Avery; Flashdance (1983) Adrian Lyne