 |
| Lucas Samaras Figure 1978 Polaroid, with added ink Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri |
 |
| Laurie Simmons Woman, Red Couch, Newspaper 1978 C-print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| Gordon Matta-Clark Caribbean Orange 1978 C-print Milwaukee Art Museum |
 |
| David Husom Brown County Fairgrounds, New Ulm, Minnesota 1978 C-print Minneapolis Institute of Art |
 |
| Jo Alison Feiler #13 1978 C-print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| William Eggleston Sinks no. 7 & 8 1978 dye transfer print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
 |
| James Welling A40 1977 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
 |
| Henry Wessel Untitled (series, New California Views) 1977 gelatin silver print Minneapolis Institute of Art |
 |
| Arthur Tress Electrocution Fantasy 1977 gelatin silver print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| Howard Bond Hohensalzburg 1978 gelatin silver print Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
 |
| Howard Bond Palace Courtyard, Freistadt 1978 gelatin silver print Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
 |
| Paul Caponigro Castle Rigg Stone Circle, Cumbria 1978 gelatin silver print Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri |
 |
| Robert Mapplethorpe Baby's Breath 1978 gelatin silver print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Sherman 1978 gelatin silver print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| Susan Meiselas First Day of Popular Insurrection, Nicaragua 1978 C-print Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
 |
| Tony Ray-Jones Glyndebourne, East Sussex 1978 gelatin silver print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
Electrocuting an Elephant
Her handlers, dressed in vests and flannel pants,
Step forward in the weak winter light
Leading a behemoth among elephants,
Topsy, to another exhibition site;
Caparisoned with leather bridle,
Six impassive tons of carnival delight
Shambles on among spectators who sidle
Nervously off, for the brute has killed
At least three men, most recently an idle
Hanger-on at shows, who, given to distilled
Diversions, fed her a live cigar.
Since become a beast of burden, Topsy thrilled
The crowds in her palmy days, and soon will star
Once more, in an electrocution,
Which incident, though it someday seem bizarre,
Is now a new idea in execution.
Topsy has been fed an unaccustomed treat,
A few carrots laced with cyanide,
And copper plates have been fastened to her feet,
Wired to cables running off on either side;
She stamps two times in irritation,
Then waits, for elephants, having a thick hide,
Know how to be patient. The situation
Seems dreamlike, till someone throws a switch,
And the huge body shakes for the duration
Of five or six unending seconds, in which
Smoke rises and Topsy's trunk contracts
And twelve thousand mammoth pounds finally pitch
To earth, as the current breaks and all relax.
It is a scene shot with shades of grey –
The smoke, the animal, the reported facts –
On a seasonably grey and gloomy day.
Would you care to see any of that again?
See it as many times as you please,
For an electrician, Thomas Edison,
Has had a bright idea we call the movies,
And called on for monitory spark,
Has preserved it all in framed transparencies
That are clear as day, for all the day is dark.
You might be amused on second glance
To note the background – it's an amusement park! –
A site on Coney Island where elephants
Are being used in the construction,
And where Topsy, through a keeper's negligence,
Got loose, causing some property destruction,
And so is shown to posterity,
A study in images and conduction,
Sunday, January 4th, 1903.
– George Bradley (1986)