Love Jas H. Duke
Jas H. Duke was a poet, performer, and anarchist whose art erupted from the margins. In 1973, he returned to Melbourne after years in England, bringing with him an electrified style of performance poetry and a deep affinity for Dada. A fixture of underground cinema and experimental literature, Duke remains difficult to contain.
By Victoria Perin
Issue 1, Summer 2023/24
In a postscript from a letter dated 8 May 1973, Jas H. Duke (1939–92) added with feigned nonchalance, “By the way I am totally bald. Does this worry you? It seems to worry a lot of people for some reason.” He didn’t personally know the people he was writing his letter to––the artist-filmmakers Arthur and Corrine Cantrill––but he signed it off with a faux-naïve flourish anyway, in pink ink and capital letters: “LOVE JAS DUKE.” Fifty years ago, Duke came back home to Naarm / Melbourne from an extended period away (USA and London in 1966–67; Brighton, UK from 1967 to 1972; West Germany, 1972–73). As his letters to the Cantrills and others reveal, he returned and began a desperate search for peers. Often, he felt compelled to include some sort of warning about physical appearance, which he believed was eccentric––almost as if he were some sort of Quasimodo descending from the tower, seeking an audience with the townsfolk.
