John Duncan is an American multi-platform artist whose 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 he applied for and received Conscientious Objector status. In the mids, 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.
Several of his early events were held in private or in front of a small number of witnesses. Scare was an encouragement to examine the physical effects of fear. Other events were presented to radio audiences, at once separated from each other and too large to gather in one place. Happy Homes , his last performance before leaving Los Angeles, was a telephone exchange with radio therapist Dr.
His first films were shot in Super-8, silent or with separate audio, intended either as stand-alone works or as elements used in live events. The performance For Women Only is centered around a film intended to erotically arouse the all-woman audience, who were then invited to enter a back room and abuse Duncan sexually.
