Rosa Naparstek

If love had wings

27 x 34 x 16 in
Vintage record cabinet, rubber doll, newsprint photo of an Iraqi child, b/w photo of a little girl, plaster, rocks, text on both doors, light, music box.
1991 - 2000

I was born in Siberia January 16, 1944. On January 16, 1991, I was standing on a street corner in downtown San Francisco handing out flyers to prevent an upcoming war. In the middle of doing so, I found out that we invaded Iraq starting the Gulf War. If Love Had Wings is a love song to and between two children embroiled in war. One is an Iraqi child holding her doll at the bombed out ruins of her home, the other is me, also holding a doll at the end of WWII.

When the doors to the record cabinet are opened, a music box starts to play “It’s a Small World After All.” This song was written for Walt Disney for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City Children of the World pavilion. I found the music box on the street in San Francisco and only after installing it, did I find out it’s title and words. This brought everything together connecting the wars, the children, the poem and that “It’s a Small World After All.”