John Duncan (artist)
| John Duncan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Craig Duncan June 17, 1953 Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles |
| Known for | Performance Art, Video, Installations, Experimental Music |
| Notable work | Scare, Blind Date, The Crackling, The Keening Towers, The Error, The Gauntlet |
This page is about John Duncan the contemporary artist. For the Symbolist artist see John Duncan (painter).
John Duncan is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna (Italy). His body of work includes performance art, installations, contemporary music, video art and experimental film, often involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. His events and installations are a form of existential research, often confrontational in nature.
Duncan was born in Wichita, Kansas to parents of English and Scottish ancestry. He was raised with a strict Calvinist upbringing where self-reliance, hard work and the suppression of emotional suffering were considered virtues, questioning authority was severely punished.
In his teens he studied classical figure drawing and painting, together with psychology and the physics of light. His first contact with experimental music was the Jacques Lasry LP Chronophagie, discovered in the record bins of the Wichita Public Library. In 1971 he applied for and received Conscientious Objector status. At 19 he left for Los Angeles to attend CalArts, where he studied under Allan Kaprow.
In the mid-1970s, his Los Angeles performances, events and installations were influenced by the 'Poor Theatre' of Jerzy Grotowski, as well as the cathartic exposure of personal experiences seen in the work of Viennese actionist artist Rudolf Schwarzkogler and early feminist performance art.
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