Dutch: A Brief History

     It was 1981 when the first version of Dutch was completed. In it's original configuration the project was largely a disaster with bad writing and color Xerox prints of marginal fidelity.

     It sat in that state for 27 years. Boxes of Kodachrome were forgotten beneath a light table. The found objects that had made up the world of Dutch remained in storage boxes. All of it in suspended animation.

     The project was conceived from a dream in which I found broken and abandoned toys on a sidewalk. The dream became reality when I found the toys behind a failing Woolworth down the street from my apartment.

     I collected up those forsaken objects and they became the first of the many that would eventually comprise this curious tale.

     I have little recollection of how many of these objects eventually came into my possession. Some items came to me in moments of great stress. Others arrived under highly sentimental circumstances. Most just seemed to appear on their own.

    Placed together on the table the objects engender odd connections. They take on a life of their own revealing relationships and circumstances I am always surprised by.

   Missing from all this is City Kitty the narrator of my story. I rescued him from a parking lot in the old Manhattan Flower District. He died beneath the wheels of a yellow taxi in the West Village.

     He would not allow himself to be restrained. It seemed that wandering was his lust. City did allow me to briefly share his life.

     To City Kitty and his spirit I owe this story.

Carlos René Perez, 2008