With city blocks burned to the ground, a shrinkage of affordable housing, and a spike in homelessness, the New York of the late seventies was a city in distress. Pope.L saw many of his closest relations—including his aunt, his brother, and his father—reduced to living on the street. “When you have that many people in your family suffering from this thing, maybe you think it will happen to you. The slashing of public programs coincided with a rise in public performance art—Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s “Touch Sanitation” (1979-80), Christy Rupp’s “Rat Patrol” (1979), Jenny Holzer’s “Inflammatory Essays” (1979-82)—but Pope.L struck a nerve. The officer, whose silver-and-gold watch flashes in the light, doesn’t seem intent on helping Pope.L.