'Richard C. Doty (Sgt. United States AFOSI)'

Wood, mdf, chipboard, ink, acrylic

24” W x 48”H x 1-1/4”D

2016

Private Collection

For many years I have been fascinated by masonry buildings of a certain age that contain evidence of a past existence. Often this stratified residue hearkens back to a more prosperous or energized age. In addition to the obvious aesthetic appeal that these fossilized traces contain- there is rich metaphorical vein that transcends the visible and evokes a sense of psychological unease.

This vignette (based upon an actual Buffalo architectural reference) - a solitary door situated high upon a masonry façade- conjures an array of emotional /poetical/ psychological qualities ranging from absurdity, futility, mockery, sadness, and ultimately- frustrated desire. This door presents a puzzling enigma: it cannot be accessed from the outside due to its vertical placement, and to exit it from an imagined interior locale would imply certain peril for its user-thus relegating it to some liminal zone of existence- a door which can never be used- an ossified parody of itself.

The piece is named after a notorious figure culled from the annals of my research into the field of ‘High Strangeness’. Doty was a former Air Force intelligence agent-who in the early 1980s was charged with the duty of disseminating false information (COINTELPRO) to several groups of earnest civilian UAP researchers in an attempt to disrupt the outcome of their work and ultimately deflect their attentions from potentially discovering sensitive covert government activities. This insidious counterintelligence program created a lingering sense of ambiguity, confusion, and dissent within its intended targets and revealed the extents to which government entities would employ to conceal certain ‘truths’.

I often employ titles in my works to play with and add a conceptual layering - which in most cases the viewer will find obscure. I have grown fond of anthropomorphizing (through naming)- various architectural vignettes - that evoke certain qualities of a specific person- in this instance Richard C. Doty.