Drawing for "Electric Dress"

In Tokyo in 1956, Atsuko Tanaka donned her Electric Dress, a costume of two hundred painted blinking light bulbs, light tubes, and dangling electrical cords that covered her from head to toe. Electric Dress was a response to the proliferation of technology in everyday life, which was especially dramatic during Japan’s rapid industrial reconstruction after World War Two. Tanaka imagined her body as a canvas and the electric outfit as a contemporary painting, one that embraced modern aesthetics, like the neon signs that were appearing throughout Japanese cities. This holds for the drawing on view, which was first exhibited alongside the garment. It showcases one of the endless configurations of color and shape made possible by the erratically flashing dress, thus modeling a technology-driven form of abstraction.