SCOTT DUNCAN
So much is barely discernible. The streets may be cloaked in fog. The snow covers the dark ground. Waves in a lake break a mirror-like surface. The sun’s glare dissolves solid shapes and brings life to inanimate objects. The real meanings of words often arrive well after they’ve been spoken. Something solid may dissolve quite suddenly.
Earlier in my career, my practice was rooted in performance poetry, long-form video, and installations reflecting on the marks left by modern infrastructure—ports, highways, and distribution centres. Through this work, I was documenting the scarring humans made on the landscape. In 2014, I brought that practice to an abrupt close.
I began taking photographs in earnest in 2016, at a time when everything around me seemed to vanish into fog. As the familiar world blurred and disappeared from view, and as my own sense of presence began to fade, an impulse arose to reach toward the light through the lens, and to begin a return. It marked a shift in my work—from observing the scars left by human intervention to seeking the subtle, transformative impact of light on places, structures, and lives. To support this exploration, I often work with old manual lenses, wide-open apertures, and back-lighting, using these techniques to invite light itself to become an active, shaping force within the image. My work draws inspiration from cinema, especially in how positioning in relation to the subject enables light to transform it—softening edges, dissolving solidity, and revealing something more fleeting and unstable.
Moments like these—when the hidden becomes visible, or the visible begins to dissolve—feel decisive to me. Through photography, I try to tell the story of things on the verge of appearing or disappearing, moments that are barely perceptible but deeply felt.
ARTIST CV
Lives and works in Montreal, Canada
Exhibitions
2020 A Gathering Gagné Contemporary, Toronto, ON, November 2020
2015 The Road to Chisasibi. Four channel 15hour video installation. Shown at Videographe, Montreal, September
2013 Travellings. Centre d’artiste Vaste et Vague, Carleton s.Mer, Feb 8 to March 15 (Solo)
2012 WAFEUFHEWHDPQW01HRQ83YR, 20 minute video projection, Daïmon, Gatineau, QC Dec. 13
2011. It Takes Two, 1’17 video installation, Nuit Blanche Ottawa (September 20, 2012)
2009 Global Prosperity AXENÉo7, Gatineau, QC. 21 October to 22November, 2009 (Solo)
2008 Hatred of Capitalism/Haïr le capitalisme. Galerie de l’UQAM. 11 January to 9 February (Solo)
Commissions
Smythe, Toronto
Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau
SOULiers studio, Ottawa
Select performances & sound recordings
2005 Object of my artistic affection,Video projection and performance, Casa del Popolo, Montréal
1994 - 2003 Fluffy Pagan Echoes –Member – some key events
2003 Festival des voix d’Amériques Montréal
2001 Launch of Impure: Reinventing the Word,Toronto
1995 Resistance is Reasonable, 60 minute theatre piece, Fringe Festival, Montréal
1995 Five Minute Cabaret, ArticuleGallery benefit, Lion D’or, Montréal, QC
1994 Oborro Gallery Taira Liceaga Vernissage,Montréal
1994 Lollapallooza Music Festival,Montréal
Performances on the radio
1995 CBC Radio Arts Weekend, with Avril Benoit(with Fluffy Pagan Echoes), Montréal
Sound recordings
2002 Oct. Wired onWords –spoken broken CD (distribuéavec Broken Pencil no. 20): SoundPoem
1998 Nov. Wired On Words – Millennium Cabaret CD: Sound Poem
1996 Spring cassette,limited edition: Pseudo Studio Recordings, Vince Tinguely, producer
1995 June Wired On Words series: ParapataTransmissions
March Wired On Words series: Smash The WindowsTake The Clothes
1994 Oct. WiredOn Words series: Advertising Billboards Make Us Puke
Press
2009 Voir Gatineau. Paysages manufacturés. Katy le Van
Guerilla Magazine. Video Tracts of a Vast Complex World, Tony Martins
2008 Le Devoir, Montreal. Du bitume et des corneilles, Marie-Ève Charron.
2003 'Voices of Genius', Cheryl Gelsthorpe, The Link, Montréal
2002 The Globe and Mail Toronto 'Go tell it on the Mountain', Hal Niedzviecki
The Gazette, Montréal 'From mouth to mouth', Carmine Starnino
2001 1 Nov. "Sound bites", Zoe Whittall, XTRA!. Toronto
Impure: Reinventing The Word. Victoria Stanton & Vincent Tinguely. Montréal: conundrum press
25 Oct. Interview with Victoria Stanton & Vince Tinguely, Anne Lagacé Dowson, Home Run, CBC 1, 88.5 FM, Montréal.
21 Oct"Out Loud – Montréal's spoken word scene gets celebrated on the page', Melora Koepke, Hour, Montréal
21 Oct "Speak easy", Genevieve Paiement, The Mirror, Montréal
Sep."un écart immense entre l'écrit et l'orale", Victoria Stanton & Vincent Tinguely, Matrix no. 57, Montréal
Education
2005-2008 Université du Québec à Montréal École des arts visuels et médiatiques Masters of Arts (creation, visual and media arts)
1988 – 1992 McGill Honours BA, History
Grants
2013 Conseil des arts et des lettres. Grant for the creation of a four-camera immersive video of the road from Canada's Parliament to James Bay.
2008 Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec. Grant for research and creation of experimental feature length videos about sea ports in Canada and abroad.
Centre Daïmon, Research and Creation grant
2003 Canada Council, travel grant, Festivaldes voix d’Amériques
2000 Canada Council, production grant, grants for emerging artists, Film and New Media, for “Rainin’ Threes/Trocar Lados”