For the last 40 years Paul Laffoley has been creating profound, absorbing and deeply symbolic art, loaded with a multiplicity of esoteric, occult and scientific references. Primarily concerned with the mechanics of time and space, and the exploration of various theological constructs, his work shares an affinity with the psychedelic consciousness of counterculture figures such as Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary and Phillip K Dick - all of whom share his enthusiasm for the postulation of future world scenarios. Lafolley has become something of a cult-figure in recent times with an ever-burgeoning cabal of enthusiastic LSD-gobbling devotees. On the eve of a major retrospective exhibition in New York's Kent Gallery, Dazed caught up with him to find out exactly what it's all about.

Dazed Digital: Is your intention for us to understand to your work, or simply to be engulfed?
Paul Lafolley: A symbol cannot be a mixture of incongruous elements moving over a subject like a chaotic spread of insects. It is like a lit fuse with a flame headed toward a supply of fresh dynamite. All understanding is symbolic. A symbol means the knower and that which is known reverses their conditions. The knower becomes passive and that which is known becomes active, and therefore totally powerful.

DD: A lot of people see you as some sort of philosophical future world prophet - how do you consider yourself?
PL: I have never thought of myself in that light. I am however writing a book describing the facts and sensibilities from 9/11 until 2100 AD. This is the period of the Bauhauroque - the third phase of Modernism.

DD: Do you as adhere to any particular form of belief?
PL: I am a member of the Knights of Malta - the most famous laity group of the Catholic Church. The Knighthood's current activities are concerned with acquiring real estate for the Church, such as the parcel of land on lower Manhattan that became "Ground Zero" - it was originally acquired in 1870 in the form of a swamp.

DD: Do you believe we can predict future events?
PL: Our existence is based on future prediction. But like all phenomena, the assessment is based on statistical analysis. The Global Consciousness Project, headquartered at Princeton University operates by means of 50 random number generators placed in cities around the world. These devices record the predictions of the Noesphere as defined by Teilhard de Chardin.

DD: What do you think of the psychedelic apocalypse theories that place in the end of the world 2012?
PL: In 2013, a working time machine will make all time available. True mega- and micro-engineering will occur. Individual lives will be corrected and life extension will be guaranteed. All wars will be eliminated. The discontinuity between life and death will be eliminated.

DD: You have announced that the years 2001-2049 shall be a time of light - can you expand upon that?
PL: This is the first half of what I have called the Bauharoque. The Time of Darkness followed as the second half. With the use of a working time machine, an amazing hubris took over as a device to enhance the human imagination (called the Phantasmatron VII) in homage to William Blake was invented by Relpek on April 15, 236 AD, and its power was pumped beyond all known safety limits. The device practically blew up the entire universe, but not quite.

"The Medium as the Artist" - Künstlerliste Ausstellung Bochum, Germany Feb 16