Electric Dress 1956

This dazzling, playful sculpture entitled Electric Dress was conceived by Atsuko Tanaka, who was affiliated with the Gutai group in Japan. Imagine her, draping and arranging dozens of blinking lights and colored fluorescent tubes on a wireframe: it must have been a real balancing act between controlling the form and letting the materials speak for themselves. What a joyous riot of colour and form! I feel Tanaka’s energy and excitement through her art, it’s as if she’s saying: “Look at all these possibilities!” For me, Tanaka’s Electric Dress also encapsulates an important conversation about the possibilities of the readymade, while pushing painting beyond the canvas, beyond a two-dimensional surface. In so doing, Tanaka asks us to consider how we can engage with the world around us and the relationship between the artist and the materials they employ.