This January, Dallas Contemporary continues its experimental performance and film series DC EMPTY with Lone Star Dream Journal, a durational multimedia performance by Dallas-based artist Z Pinson. Presented over two afternoons, the work unfolds as an immersive meditation on landscape, memory, and the porous boundary between documentation and dream.
Drawing from sites south of the Dallas County line, Red Oak, Ferris, Wilmer, and Lancaster, Lone Star Dream Journal reflects the places where, as Pinson describes, “the metropolitan area dissolves into rural emptiness.” These transitional zones, shaped by both familiarity and distance, form the conceptual backbone of the performance, which translates lived geography into sound, image, and atmosphere.
At the core of the work is a live, two-hour performance built from electro-acoustic compositions rooted in musique concrète, an experimental tradition developed by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and advanced by artists such as Luc Ferrari, Claire Rousay, and Éliane Radigue. Working within this lineage, Pinson gathers field recordings and visual material from their hometown environment, synthesizing these fragments into a layered audiovisual experience that blurs time, place, and perception.
The performance is realized in collaboration with Fort Worth–based independent sound system EZ Clap, led by engineer Adam Tunnard, alongside installation and projection artist Lilian Mecca. Together, they construct a space where sound, film, and set elements operate in concert, inviting visitors into an environment that is both intimate and expansive. Guests are encouraged to enter and exit freely throughout the duration of the performance, allowing the work to be encountered in fragments or as a sustained experience.
Born in 1998 in Red Oak, Texas, Pinson is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans electro-acoustic composition, film, sculpture, and performance. Across these mediums, they create immersive environments that collapse distinctions between the real and the imagined, engaging experimental sound traditions, field-based research, and embodied modes of listening. Their work has been presented nationally and internationally, with performances and installations shown at venues including Artist Television Access in San Francisco, Salon des Amateurs in Düsseldorf, Kiosk Radio in Brussels, and Royal Belligeranza Hall in Bologna.
DC EMPTY emphasizes flexibility and immediacy, creating opportunities for artists to experiment with duration, presence, and process. Through sound, memory, and the subtle textures of place, Lone Star Dream Journal offers a quiet but resonant reflection on the landscapes that shape identity, both personal and collective.
The performances are free with an RSVP and take place Saturday, January 17, and Sunday, January 18, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Dallas Contemporary.