So, it's the talk of high society New York, or at least it was last month. Two deaths. Rich, beautiful power couple going mad. Talks of The Church of Scientology intimidating and harrassing the victims. It all somehow has to do with Beck. Read on.In the most recent issue of Vanity Fair, I found a noir-narrative article about a "New York art world double suicide!" that captivated me, and started me researching the two victims, Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, a well-known couple for their eccentricism and uncommon closeness. (They were obsessed with one another.) In photographs together, the pair of digital artists look casual, cool and in possession of shared secrets the rest of the world might never uncover. I found them immediately charming and vulnerable.I had to know who went first.
The article documents the couple's meeting, their mad love and equally successful yet turbulent careers, and a timeline of events leading up to their deaths. It sounds too romantic to be true. Theresa Duncan takes a bottle of pills with her favorite champagne one night in the church rectory apartment they share on the lower east side of New York. Jeremy Duncan, seemingly stunned and emotionally empty following his lover's suicide, goes missing for weeks. Speculation all over the New York papers and art blogs suggests he has run away, or been killed by the Church of Scientology (hard to explaine, see article). But then Blake is seen walking into the ocean. His body turns up days later, and a double suicide of literary proportions is complete. But there are many questions unanswered, and Nancy Jo Sales' controversially dramatic, first-hand (she knew Duncan personally) account, "The Golden Suicides," attempts to tap into the dark, troubled world these two creatives spun for themselves in the years before their deaths.
The story is quite twisted. Duncan and Blake are equally disgusting and vulnerable, almost likable. Some intriguing elements include their involvement with indie rock star Beck, and his Scientology faith, which plays a major role in their unraveling. Also, the reader might find themselves familiar with both Duncan and Blake's work both in the late 20th century and early 21st in digital art, giving this story a connective feel. Adding to the intimacy of this piece is the mention of Theresa Duncan's blog, which is still available to read on the internet. The Wit of the Staircase is a rabbit hole into Duncan's wonderland, andnow a richly layered memorial, not only to Duncan and her lover, but to the world of dark, ironic and daring art of the late 20th century that Blake and Duncan were a part of, an art that seems unable to transfer into this new century and its obsession with transcendence and positive energy. Duncan and Blake were still operating in the angst of the their generation, and finding it difficult to be heard. In this article, their voices whisper clear instruction and inspiration from the grave.
Duncan, her ghost blog and peculiar biography-- even just the look in her eye, directly influenced me to start a blog, and keep a meter, a record going of the art and the influences that speak to me becauase, I find that I too am tuned into a moment past. I am oh so familiar with mental chaos and torment, and can relate to Blake and Duncan as part of "our wandering kind." in the lyric of Laura Veirs. Moving from Seattle to New York to Los Angeles to New York, the two seemed to sniff out scene and set up their nest right in the flow of culture, where they felt most alive. Unfotunately, the high frequency or maybe the weight of their artistic tasks made them susceptible to fracture, and things went very wrong. See for yourself. You can find the classically written mystery-feature article here.
Blake and Duncan, evidently posing for something.
So, you can see, something isn't quite right...
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