Track 16 can always be trusted to present provocative, fascinating work. "The Murder of Becky" created by Lauren Hartman and Curt LeMiex, continues the commitment to art that steps "away from the box". The performance was a one evening event only but the installation will continue through May 7, 2005 and there will be video from the performance to view.
Before entering the main gallery, you are asked to read an explanation about the subject and the artists' intent.
The story of Topsy, an elephant owned by Luna Park at Coney Island in 1903, is true. She had killed 3 abusive trainers and the park's management planned to destroy her. Electrocution was a new technology at the time. As a marketing ploy to promote the benefits of DC current and bring crowds to the venue, Thomas Edison and Luna Park collaborated to end Topsy's life in a public execution by electrocution.
With this true story in mind and more details than listed here, you enter the gallery installation to find yourself in a bleak landscape of debris and wreckage. They are the remains of Topsy, who is renamed Becky for the performance. Actors wander and speak words or give physical form to the ideas that can produce such carnage: the wonders of science, hatred, fear, curiosity, vengeance, arrogance, ignorance.
There are many more layers of thought and message to the installation that are left to the viewers imagination 
and interpretation. Though subtle, "The Murder of Becky" is a powerful experience.
Topsy died 102 years ago. At first, you might find it easy to dismiss such public and commercial inhumanity to man and animals as behavior from another time. Consider that you only have to observe or be someone in a conversation whose back is to today's, yesterday's, anyday's television news broadcast to see that suffering as a consequence to our actions, inactions, even thoughts remains the backdrop to our lives.
Mark Ruker, Simone Gad, Robert Jacka, Patrick Kennelly and Ed Pelissier are the actors who gave a superb, smooth and organic performance.
Lauren Hartman and Curt LeMiex are the creators of this fine performance artwork. Topsy was the creature who suffered at the hand of man and has returned to haunt our hearts and minds.
For more information about the true story of Topsy visit http://www.railwaybridge.co.uk/topsy.html or http://www.creativepreservation.org/media/nyt_topsy.htm
For more information about Track 16 visit http://www.track16.com/home.html
Location:
Track 16 Gallery
Smart Art Press
2525 Michigan Avenue, Bldg C-1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Telephone: 310-264-4678
Fax: 310-264-4682
