This piece was specifically about the children of MOVE. It was made for the “Via de Los Muertos, Los Angelitos“ exhibition at the Alternative Museum, New York. Their theme that year was children who had died because of political oppression. One can become horribly obsessed with MOVE history The biggest mystery is why Birdie Africa saw his brother and sister running down the alley ahead of him, but their bodies were found inside the house. There is speculation that, during all the smoke and excitement, the police killed these children in the alley and brought the bodies back to the house to cover up their mistake; then they allowed the whole neighborhood to bum down. That is what the charred windowframe is for—to give you that immediate reference to the children and how they died. How they died is very graphically depicted in the autopsy reports, but those are very clinical, very dry; very matter-of-fact, with no feeling to them at all. “Body G consists of the incomplete remains of a female child. “ That is a horrendous sentence! Can you hug your own child without thinJdng about “incomplete remains“? Should someone drop a bomb on your entire neighborhood because you won’t come out of your own home?

I used the autopsy reports, the schematics of the bodies and partial bodies—used them as film positives—and behind them I placed photographs of real children—children at play; children smiling at the camera, children in their Sunday outfits. These MOVE children were real children and this is what happened to them. When I was spreading out the autopsy schematics of their bodies, I was struck by how they made a macabre paper doll pattern, so I put that across the bottom—the little children, with their incomplete remains, holding hands [1991].