DIAL (Chapter 11: November) at The Complex (Kirkos: The Depot Sessions)
On Friday 21 November 2025 I performed a live hour-long version of Chapter 11: November from my ongoing durational project DIAL, this time in collaboration just with Keith Lindsay on electronics and live radio feedback. The performance took place in The Depot, The Complex Arts Centre’s large warehouse performance space, and it was part of Kirkos' takeover of The Depot Sessions.
A four-and-a-half-hour live extravaganza with performances of various kinds and durations happening at times simultaneously within The Depot, this was a wonderfully conceived and delivered event with a borderless, communal, quasi-anarchic, and ego-free vibe not often encountered in Dublin, taking its cue from the Fluxus movement and the John Cage-inspired Happenings of the 1960s, but imbued with a very quarter 21st century sensibility.
Kirkos is a music group from Dublin, as well as the operator of a DIY venue with a radically open approach to programming. The Complex is the only multi-disciplinary arts centre in Dublin's north inner city, combining seventeen studios, a large warehouse performance space and a gallery. *
There were several highlights for me - in fact pretty much every performance was notable - but I'd like to mention in particular Benjamin Burns & Lucia Dwyer's 'Shhh... it's a Duel' featuring a hanging violin, bells, and the contribution of juicy secrets by members of the audience broadcast to all through a megaphone; and a performance by Pink Glasses, a project by Temmuz Süreyya Gürbüz and Aonghus McEvoy "experimenting with what still qualifies as a punk band," and incorporating a collection of junk and an impromptu 'guest' performance from Joan Somers Donnelly.
My performance from DIAL represented the culmination of the event and it was the longest unbroken set. In its ambient, droning nature, and in its scheduling as the closing performance, it operated as a sort of comedown (especially as it followed the 30-minute 'Chaos Time' session, where all of the night's performers had an opportunity to blend and improvise simultaneously). It allowed anyone following the text and my movement all over The Depot, and Keith's static-filled electronic sounds which embedded processed live radio, to tune in and out, or an opportunity to digest the night's proceedings, reflect and mill around, or shuffle off into the night. The reception on the analogue radio device we used as a live radio source decided to behave fitfully, so our set resulted in one with a rather ghostly, fuzzy, industrial/noise art vibe. This chance, unintended element resonated deeply with the concept of the event. I enjoyed observing the range of responses to my approach and invitation to members of the audience to contribute their voices in speaking segments of the text - from horrified to skeptical to welcoming to eager, and gleeful, to be involved.
I'd like to highlight the visionary work of the Kirkos directorial team of Sebastian Adams and Paul Scully in bringing the event together conceptually and spatially, the entire evening timed pretty much to the second.
You can listen to the full set of DIAL (Chapter 11: November) as recorded live on the night, below:
* In recent days The Complex has announced that it has been "given notice to quit on 14 January 2026." This has been met with outrage by Dublin's arts community, with a campaign to #SaveTheComplex launched, and a petition quickly attracting a large number of signatures. Please add your own.
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