December, 2004 – 20 January, 2005
Audio installation with Paolo Parisi
Quarter
Florence, Italy
Curated by Sergio Risaliti
Referring to the soundtrack realized for CONSERVATORY Duncan speaks of ‘phantom voices’, underlining a line of research he’s followed in recent years beginning with PHANTOM BROADCAST (2002), audio work and live performance where he used a shortwave radio transmission intercepted in the course of a single recording: a shadow play that takes on the aspect of bells resonating into infinity, where reverberations and traces of choruses join and fade into emptiness.
Duncan’s recent works seem to audibly outline the echo of complex choral compositions, blocked from the senses, where we can taste only a reflection that thins out or thickens, as if breathing. Tension is accumulated gradually, without burning in dramatic or conclusive passages — or better, we could speak of infinite extensions of a single climactic moment, because in the climax this work contains the pure force to unravel in a series in minimal tonal variations.
For CONSERVATORY Duncan uses darker vocal sounds that give form to an elusive audio presence, to an ultimate ghost broadcast at the limits of human measure: again the sound is an impalpable diaphragm and necessary passage until what transcends our normal sense of listening may be perceived here in all its evocative power.
Daniela Cascella
Photos © John Duncan